EveryONE Medicines Appoints Kent Rogers as Chief Executive Officer and Josh Ofman, MD, MSHS, as Chairman of the Board
July 10 2024 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
EveryONE Medicines, the first biotech company solely dedicated
to developing personalized genetic medicines, announced the
appointment of Kent Rogers as Chief Executive Officer and Josh
Ofman, MD, MSHS as Chairman of the Board.
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Kent Rogers, CEO, EveryONE Medicines
(Photo: Business Wire)
The company was founded with seed financing from Khosla
Ventures, GV, Third Rock Ventures, and a private healthcare
investment fund, to develop a scalable pathway for treatments
tailored to individual patients with unique genetic mutations.
EveryONE Medicines is initially focused on antisense
oligonucleotides (ASOs) for rare neurological diseases and plans to
expand to additional modalities over time to treat multiple disease
types.
ASOs are currently being used for numerous rare disorders, where
“rare” by definition is 1 in 200,000 people in the US and 1 in
2,000 people in Europe. The need to develop treatments for rare
disease is highlighted by the fact that for over 90% of rare
disorders, there is no targeted treatment available and 70-80% of
rare disorders are caused by alterations in single genes where ASO
therapies could provide disease modifying benefits.
Inspired by the story of Mila, EveryONE Medicines was founded on
the commitment to make individualized medicines commercially viable
and in turn accessible to anyone who can benefit from them. Mila
was diagnosed with a rare, fatal neurodegenerative disease. In a
race against time, Dr. Timothy Yu of Boston Children's Hospital
developed Milasen, an ASO tailored to Mila’s unique mutation,
making her the first person in the world to receive a personalized
treatment designed for just one person. Inspired by this success,
Mila’s mother, Julia Vitarello, co-founded EveryONE Medicines to
make this approach a mainstream way of treating patients with rare
diseases.
“Our business model is unique to the industry, leveraging
state-of-the-art genome sequencing, AI-driven innovation and
advanced manufacturing capabilities, as well as growing support
from regulators to provide answers to neurological diseases that
impact the few or the one versus the many,” said Kent Rogers, CEO
at EveryONE Medicines. “By rethinking traditional drug development,
we are addressing a critical unmet need for patients with rare
genetic disorders, offering hope where there was previously no
viable pathway to develop novel targeted therapies in time. We’re
committed to creating a future where individualized medicines
become routine.”
“We are thrilled to welcome Kent as CEO of EveryONE Medicines,”
said Dr. Nessan Bermingham, partner at Khosla Ventures. “With over
30 years of experience in product commercialization, supply chain
logistics and market access strategy, Kent brings a wealth of
knowledge and expertise to the team. His proven track record in
life sciences and innovative approach to solving patient access
challenges will be invaluable as we work to bring personalized
genetic therapies to patients with rare diseases.”
Regulatory authorities in the US, the UK and Europe have shown
initial support for a new pathway to accelerate the development of
individual therapies to help save patient lives. EveryONE Medicines
has already secured initial agreements with European agencies for
an abbreviated non-clinical testing pathway, which will lead to a
substantial reduction in development costs and timelines. Similar
discussions with the FDA are ongoing to implement comparable
pathways in the United States.
“Technology is no longer the limiting factor. We can now find
the underlying genetic cause of disease in children like Mila and
develop a medicine that targets it, even if unique to one or just a
few patients,” said Julia Vitarello. “It is no longer a question of
whether we can do this, it is will we and when? As patients with
rare and common diseases are increasingly being categorized in
smaller groups, there is a willingness to significantly change
regulatory oversight and reimbursement allowing for an entirely new
business model for many highly targeted medicines each for a few or
single patients.”
“Today’s drug development process leaves too many patients with
extremely rare diseases waiting too long for life-changing
therapies,” said Josh Ofman, MD, MSHS, and Chairman at EveryONE
Medicines. “Our mission is to pave a faster, more cost-effective
path to new medicines that can be delivered in time. No patient
should be left behind.”
About EveryONE Medicines
EveryONE Medicines is the first company in the world to develop
individualized genetic medicines. EveryONE Medicines is dedicated
to advancing medicines for uniquely rare CNS disorders rapidly and
efficiently. With a foundation set for commercial success and
growing legislative support, including a central role in a UK pilot
program for individualized medicines – the Rare Therapies Launch
Pad, the company’s mission is to develop a new sustainable and
scalable pathway for individualized genetic medicines. For more
information, visit www.everyonemedicines.com.
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Media Kimberly Ha KKH Advisors 917-291-5744
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