Berger to head startup Kojin Therapeutics

Veteran biotech entrepreneur Harvey Berger has been on the sidelines for the past five years, is returning to the fray as chief executive of venture-based Boston startup Kojin Therapeutics. The company, founded in 2019 by a scientific team that includes Harvard research professor Stuart Schreiber, is developing classes of pills that employ ferroptosis biology to attack a wide range of diseases. Over the past decade, scientists have begun understanding the role played by ferroptosis, an iron-dependent form of cell death, in a variety of illnesses. Kojin, which has about 15 employees working in the Seaport district, is developing a class of pills that can induce ferroptosis to kill cancer cells and another class that can block ferroptosis to prevent neurogenerative diseases. The company hasn’t yet disclosed its lead drug candidates. “There are no ferroptosis-modulating drugs on the market,” said Berger (above). “We hope to be the first. That’s going to open up a whole field of therapeutics with applications to multiple disease states.” Berger, 72, started his career heading research at Centocor, one of the first biotechs developing cell-based drugs known as monoclonal antibodies. He later founded and built Ariad Pharmaceuticals, which won commercial approval of a drug to treat chronic myeloid leukemia. He stepped down in 2015 after reaching a settlement with a Connecticut hedge fund that had amassed shares and tried to force him out. Since then, Berger has not run a biotech company. But he’s served as executive chairman of Medinol, an Israeli medical device maker, and supported Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Cameron Boyce Foundation, which works to cure epilepsy.