Auxilius Pharma is a clinical-stage cardiovascular pharmaceutical company developing AUX-001, a once-daily extended-release formulation of nicorandil for the roughly 11 million Americans living with chronic stable angina. By reformulating an established molecule through the FDA's 505(b)(2) pathway, the company aims to deliver what would be the first new innovative oral angina therapy in the US since 2006 - improving adherence, tolerability and outcomes for patients who still suffer symptoms despite optimal treatment.
Basking Biosciences is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing the first reversible thrombolytic therapy for acute ischemic stroke. Its lead candidate, BB-031, is a first-in-class RNA aptamer that inhibits von Willebrand Factor to break up clots quickly, paired with a companion reversal agent, BB-025, that can switch the drug's activity off in minutes if bleeding occurs. Spun out of research begun at Duke University and founded in 2019, the company is based in the Research Triangle of North Carolina and is advancing BB-031 through a Phase 2 RAISE trial.
DeLorean Artificial Intelligence is a Palm Beach, Florida-based healthcare AI company that builds predictive and interventive intelligence to forecast chronic disease and recommend next-best clinical actions before a patient gets sicker. Its flagship Medical AI platform, MARTI, analyzes structured and unstructured health records to predict events like hospitalizations and disease progression - and is described as the first medical AI to be biologically validated by independent third parties. Founded in 2019 by Dr. Severence MacLaughlin, the company also applies its predictive engine to sales/CRM, life sciences, financial services and other industries.
Intravascular Imaging Incorporated (i3) is a Wilton, Connecticut medical device company building a next-generation coronary imaging catheter. Its 3-French NIRF-IVUS catheter fuses intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), the clinical standard for guiding stent placement, with near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) molecular imaging in a single device. The combination lets cardiologists see not just the anatomy of a coronary artery but the biology inside it - plaque inflammation, arterial dissections, transplant vasculopathy, and fibrin in unhealed stents. Spun out of work at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School and the Technical University of Munich, i3 aims to upgrade percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) by helping doctors look beyond anatomy.
Salubris Biotherapeutics (SalubrisBio) is a clinical-stage biotechnology company in Gaithersburg, Maryland that engineers complex biologics for diseases with few good options - chiefly heart failure and cancer. Founded in 2016 as the US arm of China's Shenzhen Salubris Pharmaceuticals, its lead candidate JK07 is an antibody-fusion protein designed to harness the regenerative NRG-1/ErbB4 pathway in failing hearts while dialing out the side effects, and its oncology programs JK08 and JK06 pursue solid tumors through immune engagement and a 5T4-targeted biparatopic antibody-drug conjugate.
Eric S. Fain, M.D. is the President and CEO of Procyrion, the Houston medical device company building Aortix, a percutaneous micropump roughly the size of a AA battery that is threaded into the aorta to boost blood flow and unload failing hearts. A Stanford-trained physician who never practiced clinically, Fain spent a decade at defibrillator pioneer Ventritex, then two decades climbing to Group President of St. Jude Medical and SVP at Abbott, before returning to startup life in 2018. He closed a $57.7M Series E in 2024 and serves as Lead Independent Director of Orchestra BioMed.
Jedrzej (Jed) Litwiniuk is the co-founder and CEO of Auxilius Pharma, a Boston- and New York-based pharmaceutical company built on the idea that the next breakthrough heart drug might already exist - it just needs to be reformulated. A corporate-finance and investment hand who crossed from PZU and LUX MED deal tables into the lab, he is steering AUX-001, a once-daily reformulation of nicorandil aimed at becoming the first new oral therapy for chronic stable angina in the US since 2006. In December 2025 the company closed a $4 million Series A to push the candidate through pharmaceutical optimization and a Phase Ib trial.
Samuel Murphy is co-founder and CEO of Salubris Biotherapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech in Gaithersburg, Maryland developing complex biologics for cardiovascular, oncology, and neurodegenerative disease. A Penn-trained virologist who did his postdoc in the lab that became Spark Therapeutics, he spent a decade in pharma strategy consulting and life-sciences investment banking before joining Salubris in 2017 and taking the CEO seat in 2020. His lead program, JK07, is the first clinical-stage selective ErbB4 agonist aimed at being a disease-modifying biologic for heart failure. He also runs international business development for the company's Chinese parent, Shenzhen Salubris Pharmaceuticals.
William G. Hendren, MD, MBA is the co-founder and CEO of QURA, Inc., a Duxbury, Massachusetts medical technology company building the QSmart platform - an implantable biosensor roughly the size of a grain of rice that continuously measures and wirelessly transmits medical-grade blood pressure data in real time. A surgeon trained at Harvard, Mass General, Emory and the Cleveland Clinic, with an MBA and strategic healthcare consulting experience at PwC across the US, Middle East, China and the UK, Hendren is taking aim at hypertension, which he calls the single leading healthcare threat in the world.
Kardigan is a South San Francisco heart health company modernizing cardiovascular drug development. Founded by the team behind MyoKardia, it pairs a late-stage clinical pipeline in dilated cardiomyopathy, acute severe hypertension and calcific aortic valve stenosis with a 'cardiac intelligence' platform - real-world patient data and AI - to match disease drivers to the right responders.
Brian Fahey is a serial medtech entrepreneur who co-founded Adona Medical, a clinical-stage company developing an adjustable interatrial shunt with integrated bi-atrial pressure sensors for heart failure management. A Duke-trained biomedical engineer and Stanford Biodesign alumnus, Fahey previously co-founded Niveus Medical, which delivered over 10,000 ICU rehabilitation treatments before being acquired by Stryker in 2017. At Adona, he guided the company through $95.5M in total funding including a $33.5M Series C in 2024, and oversaw the initiation of first-in-human clinical trials before stepping down as CEO in December 2025.
Josh Lehrer is a physician-scientist and biotech executive serving as CEO of Marea Therapeutics, a clinical-stage company harnessing human genetics to develop first-in-class medicines for cardiometabolic diseases. A cardiologist by training with degrees from Harvard, Cambridge, and UCSF, Lehrer brings over two decades of drug development experience spanning Genentech, Global Blood Therapeutics (where he oversaw the FDA approval of Oxbryta for sickle cell disease), and Graphite Bio. At Marea, he has led the company from a Third Rock Ventures incubation to a $190 million-funded enterprise with two clinical-stage programs showing strong early efficacy data, including a 53% reduction in remnant cholesterol with MAR001 published in The Lancet.
Dr. Pavan K. Cheruvu is the President and CEO of Bitterroot Bio, a Palo Alto-based biotech pioneering the field of cardio-immunology — the intersection of the immune system and cardiovascular disease. A Rhodes Scholar, board-certified cardiologist, and physician-scientist who trained at Duke, Oxford, Harvard/MIT, Johns Hopkins, and UCSF, Cheruvu is guiding Bitterroot Bio's lead program BRB-002 — a first-in-class CD47-targeting therapy for atherosclerosis — through clinical development after a landmark $145M Series A in 2023 and positive Phase 1 results in 2025.
Tassos Gianakakos is a Greek-American biotech entrepreneur and the co-founder, CEO, and Chair of Kardigan, a cardiovascular drug discovery company he built from the ashes of MyoKardia — the precision-medicine heart company he led to a $13.1 billion acquisition by Bristol Myers Squibb in 2020. At Kardigan, he is applying the same playbook: marrying real-world clinical data, AI tools, and deep cardiovascular biology to deliver personalized medicines for heart disease — a field he believes is where oncology was 20 years ago. With $554 million raised and three late-stage clinical programs underway, Gianakakos is on a mission to make cardiovascular disease preventable and curable.