Dr. Ford is a former vice president of research at Roche who initiated and drove the P2X3 program for the last decade, including collaboration with Professor Geoffrey Burnstock of University College London, a leading expert in the P2X3 receptor area. Dr. Ford brings more than 20 years of research and development experience at Roche and Syntex to Afferent. Liam Ratcliffe, M.D., Ph.D., Afferent Board member and venture partner, New Leaf Venture Partners, will work closely with Dr. Ford and play a key role in advising the company on clinical development strategies. Dr. Ratcliffe is the former senior vice president and development head for Pfizer Neuroscience and brings over 15 years of drug development experience in pain and related indications to the company. Afferent ™s Board of Directors is chaired by Kevin Starr, partner, Third Rock Ventures, and also includes Arthur M. Pappas, managing partner, Pappas Ventures, Dr. Ratcliffe, and Jesse I. Treu, partner, Domain Associates.

Understanding how pain is processed at each stage in the peripheral and central nervous system is key to developing safe and effective therapies for the treatment of pain, commented Dr. Ratcliffe. We now understand that P2X3 is an important receptor in a variety of pain conditions and provides an opportunity to block pain at its source. We believe Afferent is well positioned to be the leader in P2X3 targeted drugs and fully exploit this opportunity.

Afferent has exclusively licensed the P2X3 program from Roche. Dan Zabrowski, global head of partnering, Roche commented, We consider the P2X3 pathway to be an innovative and promising area worthy of further clinical development. Investing this program, related assets and intellectual property in Afferent provides the ideal focused vehicle to ensure this opportunity can be maximized for the potential benefit of the millions of patients suffering from chronic pain. We are very pleased to be collaborating with Dr. Ford and this leading life sciences syndicate to launch Afferent and advance the P2X3 program.