2Flo Ventures

Vivacelle Bio Announces Early Results of its Phase IIa Clinical Trial of VBI-S for Improving Hypovolemia Due to Sepsis

#2FloEquityNews: There is promising news in the fight against sepsis— a life-threatening complication of an infection that disproportionately impacts people of color.

The 2Flo portfolio company Vivacelle Bio has reached the halfway point of the Phase IIa clinical trial investigating the potential of its nanoparticle technology, VBI-S, to treat hypovolemia due to septic shock caused by bacterial infections. Early results suggest the technology is effective in raising blood pressure and improving oxygenation, even in late stages of septic shock.  In addition, clinically significant improvement in lung, kidney, and liver function was observed.

Why it matters: 

  • Sepsis contributes to over 1 in 3 hospital deaths.
  • 73% of COVID-19 deaths are due to sepsis, septic shock or sepsis-related organ failure.
  • Similar to COVID-19, people of color face higher rates of sepsis, leading to significantly increased risk of morbidity and mortality among these patients.  

This would be an invaluable tool in the ongoing fight against those bacterial infections that lead to septic shock, as well as for COVID-19 patients co-infected with a bacterial infection, also resulting in septic shock. Additionally, VBI-S has been successfully deployed as a compassionate-use drug to treat hypovolemia in COVID-19 patients.

Vivacelle Bio’s nanoparticle technology was invented by Dr. Cuthbert Simpkins, a Harvard-trained trauma surgeon and former Naval Officer. This latest research is being funded by a $5.3 million grant from the U.S. Navy.

As a Black-founded company working to address critical medical needs, Vivacelle Bio embodies our mission at 2Flo Ventures to close gaps in health outcomes for systemically disinvested communities. Thank you to Dr. Simpkins and the entire Vivacelle Bio team! 

Read Vivacelle’s press release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221020005031/en/Vivacelle-Bio-Announces-Early-Results-of-its-Phase-IIa-Clinical-Trial-of-VBI-S-for-Improving-Hypovolemia-Due-to-Sepsis.

#Sepsis #COVID19 #healthequity #equitableinnovation #Blackleaders #venturecapital #startup #Chicago

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About Starr Green

Administrative Assistant

Starr is a creative problem solver with over twenty years of administrative assisting experience.

Experience

Calm and patient, she enjoys varied work responsibilities in a team or independently. The breadth of knowledge she has gained provides the benefit of a strong background in office organization & time management.

About Elsie Oyoo

Venture Capital Analyst

Elsie Oyoo is a venture capital analyst with 2Flo Ventures. She is a certified corporation secretary in Kenya and advocate of the High Court of Kenya, with over six years’ experience. She has served as the deputy corporation secretary of a Kenyan state-owned entity in which role she has given legal and policy advice to the Board of Directors and Senior Management team.

Experience

Elsie started off her career at the Commercial and Employment Law Practice Group of DLA Piper Kenya (Iseme, Kamau and Maema Advocates) and was mentioned in the legal directory, IP Stars in 2017 for her work on trademarks. She also formed part of the legal team that advised one of the largest banks in East Africa on a rights issue.

Education

She undertook her LL.M. (Master of Laws in Corporate and Commercial Law) at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign where she won the CALI Excellence for the Future Award in Professional Responsibility. She also has a post graduate diploma in law from the Kenya School of Law and an LL.B. (Bachelor of Laws) from the University of Nairobi. In her free time, she mentors female law students from her first alma mater, the University of Nairobi.

About John Cunningham

General Partner, Chief Financial Officer

John is the founder of Plowshares Asset Management, a private company focused on strategic investments in real estate and healthcare since 1994.

Experience

John founded Plowshares Asset Management LLC, with the primary focus of the development of multi-family residential real estate in the midwestern/western US.  The firm has branched into healthcare via investments in private companies that seek to better the lives of others.

Prior to 1994 John was involved in various management/board positions with investment firms and partnerships ranging from sales/marketing to CFO/Treasurer/HR.

Philanthropy

Chairman on the Board – First Congregational Church Evanston 1994-96
Board of Directors – Evanston Community Foundation 2015-2018
Volunteer – Martha’s Vineyard Food Bank 2020 – present

Education

Vanderbilt University BS Economics 1979

About Sharon Ray

General Partner, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Sharon Ray is a global Chief Human Resource Officer and leader with over 20 years’ experience.

Experience

Sharon is the founder/CEO of S. Thompson & Associates, a consultancy that partners with Senior leadership teams to develop and optimize HR strategies and practices to help achieve their growth goals.

Sharon serves as Head of People and Operations at Cancer IQ, a genetic cancer risk assessment software firm. She has also served as the head of HR at Panopta, which was acquired in December 2020. Additionally, she served as Chief People Officer at Solstice.

Prior to that, Sharon served as Vice President of Human Resources for healthcare company Emmi Solutions, LLC. In that role, she built the human resources function, developing the HR infrastructure to provide strategic direction for the organization. During her 11.5 tenure, Sharon’s contributions resulted in Emmi Solutions’ acquisition by Wolters Kluwer for $170 million in 2016.

Education

Sharon earned a Degree in Communications from Morehead State University.

About Lyle Berkowitz

General Partner, Digital Healthcare

Dr. Berkowitz is an active healthcare advisor and investor with over 25 years experience as a primary care physician, an informatician, a healthcare innovator and a health tech entrepreneur.

Experience

Previous roles include serving as Director of Innovation at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago; founder and Chairman of healthfinch; Chief Medical Officer and EVP of Product at MDLIVE; and founder/advisor to multiple other digital health companies over the years.

He currently sits on the board of Oneview Healthcare and is Editor-in-Chief for Telehealth and Medicine. He has served on multiple national boards in the past, including the Innovation Learning Network (ILN), the Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems (AMDIS) and the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) Foundation.

He has been listed as one of HealthLeader’s “Twenty People Who Make Healthcare Better”; Healthspottr’s “Future Health Top 100”, and Modern Healthcare’s “Top 25 Clinical Informaticists”.

He is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. He has been elected to Fellowship in both the American College of Physicians (ACP) and the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS).

Education

Dr. Berkowitz received his Biomedical Engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania, his Medical Degree from the University of Illinois and did his Internal Medicine residency program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, IL.

About Paul Burton

Managing Partner, Biotechnology

Through Burton Advisory, Inc. Paul Burton provides strategic and financial advice to healthcare companies drawing from over 20 years of experience in corporate finance and strategic advisory in fortune 500 companies.

Experience

Since December 2018, Paul has been the CEO of Akan Biosciences, a biotech start-up developing regenerative medicinal therapeutics. Through Burton Advisory, he also advises early stage biotech as well as some digital healthcare companies such as Temprian Therapeutics, Schedule1, Cancer IQ, Care Advisors and 4D Healthware.

Additionally, Paul is currently an Entrepreneur In Residence at Northwestern University supporting students and faculty with healthcare oriented commercialization projects.

Previously, he was the CEO of ResQ Pharma, Inc. from July 2015 through December 2018. Similarly, he co-founded Vivacelle Bio, Inc. and was employed as its CFO and a member of its Board of Directors (BOD) from 2012 through 2015.

Paul is a Member of MATTER, a Chicago based healthcare incubator and the Bunker Labs, an Incubator started in Chicago for U.S. military veterans.

Paul started his professional career after law and business school as an investment banking associate at Salomon Brothers (now Citigroup Corporate & Investment Bank) in New York. Prior to grad school he served as a United States Regular Army Commissioned Officer (Infantry). While an undergraduate student Paul worked as a lab assistant at UIC’s Medical School Pharmacology Department, earning three co-authorships for research published in peer-reviewed journals.

Education

Paul earned his JD and MBA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He earned two Bachelor’s Degrees from the University of Illinois at Chicago.