Chord Therapeutics was founded in 2014 and launched in October 2020 with Series A funding by its sole investor, Omega Funds, a leading international venture capital firm focused on delivering impactful medicines to patients.
The Geneva-based clinical stage pharmaceutical company is developing drugs for patients with rare, life-threatening and severely disabling diseases. Chord is advancing its lead drug candidate, CRD1 (cladribine), generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG) and also neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) for which it has orphan drug designation in the US.
The German leading science and technology company, Merck, has entered into an agreement to secure the global rights by acquiring Chord Therapeutics, enabling Merck to develop Chord’s lead drug candidate cladribine for the treatment of generalized gMG and NMOSD.
The active substance in CRD1, cladribine, is approved in US & EU for oncology indications and multiple sclerosis. The safety and tolerability, as well as efficacy profile of cladribine, have been demonstrated in several thousand patients.
Claudio Nessi, Chair of Chord Therapeutics and Managing Director at Omega Funds, said : “As the founding and sole investors in Chord, we subscribed early on to Arthur Roach’s vision that CRD1 (cladribine) should be developed in gMG and NMOSD. We are very pleased that Merck, with its resources and expertise, will now continue with the work we have started, to bring this drug to patients who need a safe and proven solution to manage their diseases.”
Western Switzerland, a key region for Merck
With the recent acquisition of Chord Therapeutics and a EUR 900+ million contract with Debiopharm, Western Switzerland confirms its leading position for the production and development of Merck's biotech drugs.
With production sites in Corsier-sur-Vevey and Aubonne, as well as its future Biotech Development Center, Merck’s numerous investments in the region over the last few years have demonstrated the strategic importance of Switzerland for the pharmaceutical giant, where the company employs more than 2,500 people across eight sites.
