Ron Berenson has another biotechnology startup in the works, a new company by the name of DMD Therapeutics.
The Seattle-based company recently announced plans to raise $600,000, with Berenson listed as the president in a SEC filing. Reached by phone, Berenson declined to comment about the new startup.
A spokesperson from the University of Washington’s CoMotion program confirmed that the startup is a UW spin-off, operating in stealth mode for the time being.
Berenson has founded several biotech startups in the Seattle area since the early 90’s, including HemaQuest Pharmaceuticals and cancer research company Xcyte, which shut down in 2005. He is currently the president and CEO of ImmunoMod Consulting, Aequus BioPharma, and medical device company KitoTech medical, also a UW spin-off.
He’s also operated as an entrepreneur-in-residence at the University of Washington, mining the university’s research programs for good business ides.
Berenson began his career in Seattle at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in the 80’s, after earning degrees at Yale and Stanford, among others.
Biotech funding in Washington state has been growing steadily for the past five years, and is the second-highest funded industry in the state, behind technology.
Numbers took a dip in the first half of 2016, but several large deals have marked the start of the third quarter, including a $14 million round for Just Biotherapeutics led by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
