Portland, OR – September 17, 2019 – The Children’s Cancer Therapy Development Institute (cc-TDI) announces the creation of Artisan Biopharma (artisanbio.com), a Public Benefit Corporation pediatric cancer biopharmaceutical company, wholly owned by the 501c3 nonprofit, cc-TDI.

Artisan Biopharma (EIN 84-3079359) is a newly formed, angel-funded for-profit benefit corporation wholly-owned by the 501(c)3 nonprofit, cc-TDI. Our mission is to create a quiet cultural revolution in the way new drugs are brought to market for pediatric cancers. We incorporated September 17, 2019, and we are currently engaged with tax and security counsel to finalize our operational structure with respect to the nonprofit. Our stated mission as a public benefit corporation is to provide research and interventions related to the prevention and treatment of cancer in children.

Target market: Orphan drug indications in pediatric cancers
Few rare cancer patient populations with unmet clinical need are as vulnerable and in need of advocacy as children with cancer. Pharmaceutical companies have historically faced significant financial disincentives to pursue pediatric oncology therapeutics, including low incidence, high costs of conducting pediatric trials, and a lack of funding for early-stage research. We are leveraging the deep preclinical domain expertise of cc-TDI to more efficiently identify and in-license compounds. Our goal is to reverse the 40+ year drought represented by only 8 drug approvals for pediatric cancer. To achieve this goal, we aim to have 5 new compounds reach the clinic annually for children with high risk cancers.

Artisan advantage
The rapid advancement of new oncology drugs has created a massive, de-risked discovery tool for translational science, many of which remain novel molecular entities ready to match to rare disease indications. The founding equity investor of Artisan Biopharma, the Children’s Cancer Therapy Development Institute (cc-TDI.org), is an established partner to industry (NVS, PFE, LLY) for preclinical sciences. Artisan was formed as a natural opportunity to develop and market cancer drugs for childhood cancer, generating sustainable funding for cc-TDI’s drug discovery engine. Artisan launched with 15 pipeline candidates and a network of over 1200 families directly touched by pediatric cancer.

Business Strategy
Artisan Biopharma is a venture philanthropy entity leveraging a combination of public and private-sector funding sources. Our investors are mission driven and committed to the long runway drug development requires. As a benefit corporation, our values-based mission frames our fiduciary responsibility. We currently have an identified pipeline of over 15 molecules and are in the process of leveraging existing angel funding to create our first Series A of impact investors. We will engage pharmaceutical companies to in-license drugs with a combination of royalty agreements and/or equity.

About The Children’s Cancer Therapy Development Institute:
cc-TDI, is a unique non-profit organization focused on the ‘preclinical gap’ in childhood cancer research. Our mission is to bridge scientific discovery and the initiation of clinical trials. Through our efforts, we will provide evidence-based testing for the selection of new drugs to be used in childhood cancer clinical trials, thus seeding pediatric Phase I and II trials. Our longstanding work with mouse models of brain tumors and sarcomas is the cornerstone for basic science & target discovery and our mission. The cc-TDI research team is led by Scientific Director Dr. Charles Keller who follows in the footsteps of his mentor, 2007 Nobel laureate Mario Capecchi. The cc-TDI laboratory is based on the premise of a non-profit multidisciplinary biotech and is thus located in between the Silicon Forest in Beaverton, OR (Intel Headquarters) and the Portland-area medical center. Our industrial-modern wet lab facility is a former 70-year old paint factory remodeled by Nike as an off-site creative space – an ideal setting to spark innovation.

Press Contact:
Charles Keller MD
Scientific Director
Email: charles@cc-TDI.org

Official Homepage: www.cc-tdi.org
Twitter: cctdilab
Facebook: cctdilab
Instagram: cctdi
LinkedIn: Children’s Cancer Therapy Development Institute