Pathway to Cures, the venture philanthropy fund of the National Bleeding Disorders Foundation is focused on early-stage companies developing cures, therapies, or enabling technologies in support of the inheritable blood and bleeding disorders community. We carry out our work with volunteer expert advisors on our scientific advisory group, investment committee and board of directors. Today we spotlight our investment committee, our process for determining what is presented to this committee and the criteria used in making NBDF’s Pathway to Cures investments.
The Pathway to Cures team meets weekly with innovators and company founders working to address unmet needs in our blood and bleeding disorders community. Referrals come from our network of venture and angel investors, scientists, and through meetings at top-tier industry conferences as well as introductions from our board, scientific advisory group and investment committee. A few of these companies are encouraged to present to our scientific advisory group, which evaluates the scientific and clinical viability of the approach and provides feedback and advice. After further diligence and discussions, a few of these companies are selected for investment case development and presentation to our investment committee which evaluates the likelihood the company will be commercially viable. The investment case developed to facilitate this evaluation includes details about aspects of the opportunity deemed critical for success: the experience and track record of the team, intellectual property strategy, competitive analysis, regulatory and payor issues, risk mitigation and comparable financial data for benchmarking potential returns.
The members of our investment committee are Brian Andrew, chief investment officer at Merit Financial; Christine Brennan, PhD, managing director at Vertex Ventures HC; Geeta Vemuri, PhD, founder and managing partner at Agent Capital; and Teri Willey, managing director at Pathway to Cures.
These experts have decades of experience in venture capital investing. They help us make well-informed decisions in how we support biotech companies in the clinical development of inheritable blood disorders therapies and regularly review progress with the companies we have invested in and are tracking for future investment.
“It’s a privilege to serve on this committee and support scientists who are on the leading edge of discovering new therapies and possible cures for inheritable blood disorders,” said Andrew, who chairs the committee and who served as chair, treasurer, and member of the board of the National Hemophilia Foundation (now the National Bleeding Disorders Foundation) from 2013 to 2021. Andrew is the recipient NBDF’s 2025 Philanthropist of the Year award.
Pathway to Cures invests in early-stage companies developing cures, therapies, or enabling technologies to address unmet needs in the inheritable blood disorders community. Its initial focus is non-viral-mediated approaches and next-generation curative therapies for rare and ultra-rare blood disorders, hemophilia A and B, von Willebrand disease, sickle cell disease, clotting disorders and other hematological disorders.
