Medical Excellence Capital Announces $145 Million Final Close for Inaugural Venture Fund

New Fund targets disruptive innovations in life sciences biotech; leverages experienced investment team and extensive proprietary scientific and academic network

NISSEQUOGUE, N.Y., Aug. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Medical Excellence Capital, LLC ("MEC"), an early-stage life science venture firm formed to invest in disruptive technologies in precision health, today announced a $145 million final close of Medical Excellence Capital Partners, LP. MEC was formed to leverage the combination of a proven investment team and a unique network of physician-scientists to focus on company creation and venture investing. Target investment areas include cell therapy, gene therapy, AI/ML applied to drug discovery, synthetic biology, and regenerative medicine.

Founded by John Prufeta, founder and general partner, Medical Excellence Capital is closely aligned and networked with Medical Excellence Group (MedEx), an extensive global, private health advisory medical network and family office health care platform, built and refined over the last 15 years by Mr. Prufeta. This platform includes a network of more than 1,200 top physician and scientist leaders across 33 major academic medical centers and research institutions in the US. The Medical Excellence Capital team operates out of the significant health care innovation markets New York, California, and Pennsylvania.

Owing to its alignment with MedEx, the MEC investment team has exclusive access to a carefully selected, domestic and international medical research network and world-class Scientific Advisory Board. Through regular screening of this trusted medical network and scientific board, MEC is able to curate a unique deal flow of emerging, breakthrough technologies. These technologies are in turn thoroughly vetted by experts selected from the network. In addition, the network has been activated to help accelerate portfolio company development and maximize value creation.

Acclaimed innovators themselves in the fields of regenerative medicine, gene therapy, and mitochondrial medicine, the MEC Scientific Advisory Board brings critical perspective to evaluating new opportunities and provide added value to portfolio companies. The MEC Scientific Advisory Board is comprised of:

• Euan Ashley, M.D., Ph.D., Stanford Medical School – Associate Dean and Professor of Genetics and Precision Health Cardiovascular, and Data Science
• Gregg Semenza, M.D., Ph.D., Johns Hopkins Medicine - 2019 Nobel Prize Laureate in Medicine; Professor of Genetic Medicine
• Steven Tsang, M.D., Ph.D., Columbia Medicine – Professor of Ophthalmology, and Pathology and Cell Biology; Director of the Columbia Stem Cell Institute
• Douglas Wallace, Ph.D., Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) & University of Pennsylvania – Director of the Center for Mitochondrial and Epigenomic Medicine

John Prufeta said, "Through warm relationships in the medical research community cultivated while CEO of MedEx, I became acutely aware of numerous underserved, yet exciting, opportunities to catalyze healthcare innovation. As MEC launched, we were thrilled to add to the MEC investment team three seasoned investment professionals having decades of experience from their tenures at Domain Associates."

Brian Halak, Ph.D., MEC Managing Partner, said, "The MEC team came together as a result of our commitment to a shared mission and values. We believe this decade will be consequential with respect to healthcare innovation, and we are committed to developing companies that will have a meaningful impact on the lives of patients and their families."

Eric Heil, MBA, MEC Managing Partner, commented, "We are seeing exciting discoveries and technologies in multiple areas of healthcare. We believe that with this exclusive medical network, MEC is well positioned to accelerate the development of these discoveries in critical unmet need areas where patients and doctors can realize significant improvements in patient outcomes."

Kim Kamdar, Ph.D., MEC Managing Partner, added, "We focus our energies on developing successful partnerships with creative scientists whom we believe have the best ideas. Our operating structure is dedicated to fully support early-stage ventures at the Company Creation, Seed, Series A and Series B stages."

Over the past year, the initial close provided funding to drive MEC's investment strategy, as demonstrated in the following seven investments¹:

• Aspen Neuroscience is developing induced-pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to address diseases with high unmet medical need, beginning with autologous neuron replacement for both sporadic and genetic forms of Parkinson's disease (PD) and extending across the brain and affected organs. In the most recent Series B financing, MEC joined GV, LYFE Capital, Revelation Partners, Newton Investment Management, Singapore-based global investor EDBI, LifeForce Capital, Mirae Asset Capital, NS Investment, and others.
• Immunitas Therapeutics is a precision immunotherapy company developing antibodies for oncology directed at novel targets discovered via a proprietary single cell analysis platform. In the Series B financing, MEC joined Agent Capital, 120 Capital, Solasta Ventures, Mirae Asset, Ono Venture Investment, The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research, NS Investment, BrightEdge (American Cancer Society), The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Therapy Acceleration Program® (LLS TAP), Alexandria Venture Investments, Evotec, Leaps by Bayer, M Ventures, Novartis Venture Fund (NVF), and Longwood Fund.
• Nobias Therapeutics is a spinout from CHOP using AI and access to unique clinical datasets that enable the discovery and development of novel drugs.
• Pleno is a disruptive multi-omic platform that allows for multiplex testing in areas and high throughput applications.
• ProJenX is a clinical-stage biotechnology company, cofounded by MEC, developing novel, brain-penetrant, targeted therapies to address debilitating brain diseases, with an initial focus on ALS.
• Rejuvitas is a gene therapy company, cofounded by MEC, that provides novel gene therapies employing metabolic reprogramming and regenerative medicine technologies developed in the lab of acclaimed geneticist, Stephen Tsang, M.D., Ph.D.
• SonoThera, formerly SonoGene Therapeutics, is developing a non-viral approach to gene therapy enabling larger payloads, tissue specific targeting, and repeat-dosing.

Medical Excellence Capital provides company creation, seed, and early-stage capital to innovators in the areas of cell therapy, gene therapy, AI/ML applied to drug discovery, immunology/drug resistance, and regenerative medicine. MEC invests solely in high potential companies where its expertise, insights, and global network can promote acceleration and maximized value creation.

For more information, visit www.medexcelcap.com or email Eric Heil at [email protected]

¹    The content herein contains a description of investments made by MEC.  References to any investment included herein should not be construed as a recommendation of any particular investment or security.  It should not be assumed that investments made in the future will be comparable in quality or performance to the investments described herein.

SOURCE Medical Excellence Capital