ra-capital
(3)
Robert Jacks
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.
Avilar Therapeutics
Avilar Therapeutics is a Waltham, Massachusetts biopharmaceutical company pioneering the degradation of extracellular and membrane-bound proteins. Its ATAC (ASGPR Targeting Chimera) platform uses bifunctional small molecules that grab a disease-causing protein floating in circulation and shuttle it into the liver's endolysosome to be destroyed, extending the reach of targeted protein degradation beyond the inside of the cell. Launched in 2021 with backing from RA Capital, Avilar is applying the platform to autoimmune disease, preeclampsia, and other conditions driven by proteins that conventional drugs struggle to address.
Joel Barrish
Joel Barrish is the President and CEO of Avilar Therapeutics, a Waltham, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company pioneering extracellular protein degradation. A medicinal chemist by training with a Ph.D. from Columbia University, Barrish spent 28 years at Bristol Myers Squibb rising to VP and Global Head of Discovery Chemistry, co-inventing blockbuster drugs including SPRYCEL (dasatinib) for leukemia. After stints as CSO at Achillion Pharmaceuticals and co-founder/President at Jnana Therapeutics, he founded Avilar in 2019 to build the ATAC and MTAC platforms - bifunctional molecules that hijack the body's own cellular recycling machinery to degrade disease-causing proteins outside the cell, a class of targets previously undruggable. Avilar has raised $75 million in total seed financing.