Developing a unique mRNA platform

Combined Therapeutics is an emerging mRNA medicines company developing a unique modified mRNA platform to protect vulnerable populations from global infectious diseases as well as to cure cancer.

Fueled by our proprietary technologies, which target protein expression to specific tissues while reducing off target effects, combined with an experienced team in delivery and mRNA-based therapeutics, we are committed to harnessing the body’s machinery to protect and improve patients’ lives.

 

About Us

Combined Therapeutics has developed a unique platform built around Multi Organ Protective (MOP) miRNA sequences combined to therapeutic mRNAs, that allow to target and focus therapeutic protein expression in specific tissues, spare healthy tissues and reduce off target effects.

Together with our partners, we are committed to using our platform to protect vulnerable populations from global infectious disease threats as well as to cure cancer.

Board of Directors

Board Director

Mr. Matussiere has worked until 2017 and for more than twenty years as an investment banker for Société Générale, Citigroup and BNP Paribas, primarily out of London. His focus was on the sales and marketing of structured products, mainly in the credit space. Since 2017, Pierre has become an active Angel investor and fundraiser – through his FCA regulated company M Finance – focusing on sectors such as hospitality, leasing of transport equipment, Healthtech, residential and commercial properties and Biotech. Pierre graduated in 1995 from HEC in Paris.


Board Director

Mr. McLaughlin was most recently Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, at Acceleron Pharma Inc. Kevin joined the company in 2010 when Acceleron was a private company with an enterprise value in the hundreds of millions and remained with the company in his role until the acquisition of Acceleron by Merck & Co., Inc. in 2021 for $11.5 Billion. Kevin also serves on the boards of Vericel Corporation (VCEL) and Decibel Therapeutics, Inc. (DBTX).


President and Cofounder CEO, Board Director

Dr. Micol has been President and co-founder CEO of Combined Therapeutics since 2016. Previously, he held several positions across the Institut Mérieux group: ABlinc (USA), Shantha Biotechnics (India), Transgene (China and France). Dr. Micol is an entrepreneur with affiliations to six famous universities (MIT in US, LSE in UK, Paris VI, Paris V, Paris Dauphine in France and Global LBS in UK). Additionally he helped to set up the first reference center for primary immunodeficiency in France in 2005.


Board Director
Dr. Ruffolo is the retired President of Research & Development at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, and Senior Vice President of the Wyeth Corporation, where he supervised over 7,000 scientists and managed an annual budget of over $3 billion. Before that, he was Senior Vice President of Biological Sciences, Worldwide, at SmithKline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline). The research groups under his supervision during his career have brought 37 new medicines to market. The vaccine group at Pfizer that developed the COVID-19 vaccine was one of his former groups at Wyeth before the acquisition by Pfizer.


Board Director
Dr. Paul K. Wotton is the Chief Executive Officer at Obsidian Therapeutics, a biotechnology company pioneering controllable cell and gene therapies to deliver transformative outcomes for patients with intractable diseases. Dr Wotton has over 30 years of experience in scientific research, product development and corporate growth in the life science industry. Previously, he served as Founding President and Chief Executive Officer of Sigilon Therapeutics, Inc. Prior to Sigilon, Dr. Wotton served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Ocata Therapeutics until its acquisition by Astellas Pharma where he was also Co-Chairman of the Office of Integration. In previous roles, he has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Antares Pharma (NASDAQ:ATRS) as well as Chief Executive Officer of Topigen Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Wotton is a named inventor on numerous patents and was the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Regional (NJ) Winner Life Sciences in 2014. He serves on the Boards of Directors of Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ: VCEL) and Cynata Therapeutics (ASX: CYP) as its Chairman. Until recently Paul was a board member at Veloxis Pharmaceuticals A/S (Copenhagen: VELO) which was recently acquired by Asahi. Dr. Wotton holds a B.Pharm (Honors) from UCL, London’s global university, and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from University of Nottingham.

 

Operational Team

Romain Micol MD, MPH, PhD, MBA, LLM

President and CEO (cofounder), Leadership

Thomas VanCott, PhD

CSO

Valérie Duval, PhD

Associate Director, Biology

Lauren Speciner, PhD

Principal Scientist, Formulation & Process Development

Kim Foster, MLS(ASCP)CM

Senior Research Associate, Biology

Asad Khanmohammed

Senior Research Associate, Formulation & Process Development

Walter James

Lab Manager

Pierre Vochel

Senior Manager Strategy & Finance, Finance & Strategy

Devenand Crease, PhD

Patent Attorney

Ronald E. Kaunfer, BSc

Accounting Director

Advisors / Consultants

Sarah Cooleybeck, J.D.

Corporate Attorney

Robert Langer, ScD

Cofounder – Oncology / Virotherapy

Dan Anderson, PhD

Cofounder – Oncology / Virotherapy

David Neafus, MBA

Financial Advisor

EXISTING Science LANDSCAPE

What are mRNA therapies

  • Utilizes existing cell machinery to make therapeutic proteins that can treat disease
  • Can be modified to produce therapeutic proteins only in the target cells, such as tumoral cells, and spare healthy tissue
  • Nucleic acids therapies are a very versatile platform as they can code for any protein of interest and are transient; broken down quickly after their job is done

Our mRNA platform: Combined Therapeutics’ Drug and Modulation Platform (DMPCTx):

  • A new generation of modified mRNA delivered in a lipid nanoparticle capable of targeted protein expression in specific tissues
  • 3 routes of Administration: Intravenous, Intra-tumoral, Intramuscular
  • 2 medical applications: Vaccines & Oncology
  • Multi-Organ Protection (MOP): Treatment side effects occur when healthy cells are affected alongside diseased cells. MOP is key to delivering and focusing treatment to diseased cells only, thus preventing off target effects

Infectious disease – Prophylactic vaccine

  • The success of mRNA vaccines in the global fight against COVID19 highlights the potential of this new class of medicines. RNA vaccines can be developed more rapidly than traditional vaccines to tackle infectious disease outbreaks and can be leveraged to direct the immune system more effectively against infectious diseases
  • We can use our unique approach to develop next generation vaccines. Our infectious disease vaccine candidates contain modified mRNA-encoding antigens to specifically activate an immune response, allowing the body to fend off future infections. At Combined Therapeutics we can deliver multiple mRNAs that encode for both an antigen and an immunomodulator. This dual approach boosts the immune response against the infection, leading to better disease protection

Oncology

  • Immunotherapy is a promising approach that bolsters the patient immune system to fight his own cancer. However, it can generate severe adverse effects and exhibits a low response rate, particularly in solid cancers with an immunosuppressive microenvironment
  • DMPCTx revolutionizes the treatment of solid tumors:
  • Protect: Following a systemic administration of mRNA-based immunotherapy, DMPCTx safely produces therapeutic proteins in tumor cells only, fully sparing healthy tissues, reducing systemic toxicities and preserving safety
  • Sensitize & Boost: DMPCTx platform can be harnessed as a companion boost to sensitize all tumors to any immunotherapeutic regimen, such as virotherapy, CAR T-cell therapy, and immune checkpoint inhibitors, and thus significantly enhance their efficacies

Use our solution to enhance your immunotherapy or Vaccine applications

News

2/15/23
Combined Therapeutics doses first animals in pivotal NHP study to show improved biodistribution and safety profile of their vaccine while maintaining efficacy.

1/28/23
Robert Ruffolo, Ph.D. and Kevin F. McLaughlin join Combined Therapeutics’ board of directors.

1/12/23
Combined Therapeutics presents at JP Morgan, San Francisco CA.

1/11/23
Combined Therapeutics presents at the Biotech Showcase, San Francisco, CA.

11/14/22
Combined Therapeutics presents at Jeffries, London, UK.

11/2/22
Combined Therapeutics demonstrates MOP technology mRNA vaccine as effective as conventional mRNA vaccines in Hamster efficacy study.

10/11/22
Boston Children’s Hospital presents results from their collaboration with Combined Therapeutics at the Vaccine Summit in Washington, DC.

10/3/22
Thomas VanCott joins Combined Therapeutics as CSO.

8/1/22
CTx headquarters move into a new facility in SmartLabs, Boston MA.

7/11/22
Walter James joins Combined Therapeutics as Lab Manager.

4/29/22
Paul Wotton, Ph.D. joins Combined Therapeutics’ board of directors.

5/1/22
CTx has won the Sanofi Golden Ticket in France – 12-month free access to the new, state of the art Biolabs space in Hotel Dieu, Paris.

4/1/22
CTx received €400k of grant support from the Banque Publique d’Investissement (BPI) in France.

3/14/22 – 3/16/22
Combined Therapeutics is invited to attend Pierre Fabre Virtual Biopharma Partnering in March 2022 to showcase the company and our innovative therapeutics.

10/4/21
Asad Khanmohammed joins Combined Therapeutics as Senior Research Associate.

1/25/21
Kim Foster joins Combined Therapeutics as Research Associate.