Robert Jacks is President & CEO of Sparrow Pharmaceuticals, a Boston-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing targeted therapies for disorders driven by intracellular cortisol excess. In September 2025 he closed a $95 million Series B co-led by RA Capital and Forbion to advance clofutriben, an HSD-1 inhibitor, through a Phase 2b trial in type 2 diabetes patients with elevated cortisol. A civil engineer turned biotech operator, Jacks has spent 25 years in the industry, co-founded Symbiomix Therapeutics (sold after Solosec NDA approval), previously led Indalo Therapeutics, and has raised more than $300 million across his companies.
Calluna Pharma is an Oslo-based clinical-stage biotech building first-in-class antibodies that switch off the upstream signals driving inflammation and fibrosis. Formed in 2024 from the merger of Oxitope Pharma and Arxx Therapeutics and backed by a EUR 75 million Series A, the company targets damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) such as S100A4 to halt diseases like idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis at their root rather than managing symptoms.