About Us
Gene Therapies to Slow or Stop the Neurodegenerative Process
At Prevail Therapeutics, we are developing a pipeline of gene therapies to slow or stop the underlying disease process for patients with Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. We are leveraging recent breakthroughs in human genetics that point to potential disease-modifying targets for neurodegenerative diseases. Our programs utilize a precision medicine approach targeting patient populations with urgent unmet needs, where there are currently no available therapies that modify the progressive course of their disorders.
Prevail was founded in a collaborative effort by Asa Abeliovich, M.D., Ph.D., OrbiMed and The Silverstein Foundation for Parkinson’s with GBA, who shared a common vision: to eradicate Parkinson’s disease and related disorders. Through a partnership with REGENXBIO, we are utilizing the NAV AAV9 vector technology to advance a pipeline of gene therapy programs. We are developing our AAV9-based gene therapies for genetically defined patient populations, which we believe will increase the probability of creating disease-modifying therapies that improve patient outcomes.
Prevail was launched in 2017 with a world-class leadership team, partners and investors. We are headquartered in New York City at the Alexandria Center for Life Science. In 2021 Prevail Therapeutics was acquired by Eli Lilly and Company, and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly. For information please visit the www.lilly.com website.
LEADERSHIP
Executive Team
Franz Hefti, Ph.D.
CEO
Franz Hefti is our Chief Executive Officer, bringing more than 15 years of experience in the biotech industry as an executive, board member, co-founder and scientific advisor of many early-stage neurology companies. He previously served as Chief Development Officer at Prevail. Prior to Prevail, he was Chief Operations Officer at Proclara Biosciences, President and Chief Executive Officer of Acumen Pharmaceuticals, Chief Scientific Officer at Avid Radiopharmaceuticals (acquired by Eli Lilly and Company), and was Executive Vice President of Drug Development at Rinat Neuroscience (acquired by Pfizer). Earlier in his career, Franz was Senior Vice President of Neuroscience Research at Merck & Co. and Head of Neuroscience Research at Genentech. He also held several positions in academia as a Professor at the University of Southern California and Associate Professor at the University of Miami, where he carried out discovery research on therapeutic approaches to neurodegenerative diseases. He has published more than 250 papers on neurotrophic factors and topics in neuropharmacology. He has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Alzheimer’s Disease Imaging Initiative since 2013.
Franz holds a Ph.D. from the University of Zurich and completed his postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Jeffrey Sevigny, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Jeff Sevigny is our Chief Medical Officer. Jeff is an executive leader with over 15 years of R&D experience in large pharma, biotech, and biotech start-up and has served as a Board of Director member. Prior to joining industry, Jeff held academic appointments at Albert Einstein School of Medicine and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Jeff earned his M.D. from Tufts University and his A.B. from Bowdoin College. He completed a neurology residency at the Neurological Institute of New York at Columbia University Medical Center and a fellowship in Aging & Dementia and Neuro-Epidemiology at Sergievsky Center at Columbia University and Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
Mansuo Lu Shannon
Chief Scientific Officer
Mansuo Lu Shannon is our Chief Scientific Officer. With over 15 years of pharmaceutical and biotech experience, Mansuo brings executive leadership and scientific expertise across neurodegeneration and neurodevelopmental diseases. Mansuo joined Prevail from Eli Lilly and Company where she was the Senior Director of Neuroscience Discovery. At Eli Lilly, Mansuo led multiple programs from target identification to clinical candidate selection in the areas of tau and synuclein, aiming to deliver novel disease-modifying therapies for Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Prior to Eli Lilly, Mansuo was a group leader with Chugai/Roche and Merck. Mansuo’s postdoctoral work on Fragile X syndrome led to the founding of biotech Afraxis.
Mansuo holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Princeton University and completed her postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Partners
REGENXBIO Inc.
REGENXBIO is a leading clinical-stage biotechnology company seeking to improve lives through the curative potential of gene therapy. REGENXBIO's NAV Technology Platform, a proprietary adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene delivery platform, consists of exclusive rights to more than 100 novel AAV vectors, including AAV7, AAV8, AAV9 and AAVrh10.
REGENXBIO and its third-party NAV Technology Platform licensees are applying the NAV Technology Platform in the development of a broad pipeline of candidates in multiple therapeutic areas.
Prevail has exclusive worldwide license agreements with REGENXBIO to develop and commercialize gene therapy products using REGENXBIO’s NAV AAV9 vector to deliver the genes contained in PR001 (LY3884961), PR006 (LY3884963) and PR004.
The Silverstein Foundation for Parkinson’s with GBA
The Silverstein Foundation for Parkinson’s with GBA is a non-profit organization that invests in cutting edge research with the goal of discovering new therapies for the treatment of Parkinson's disease in glucocerebrosidase (GBA1) mutation carriers. The Silverstein Foundation was founded in 2017 by Jonathan Silverstein, General Partner and Co-Head of Global Private Equity at OrbiMed, following his own diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease and learning he was a carrier of the GBA mutation.
Jonathan and The Silverstein Foundation helped form Prevail in 2017 to bring forward curative therapies for patients.
