Celtic Therapeutics Management, a global private equity company focused on acquiring novel, life-saving and quality of life-enhancing products and accelerating the development of these products, has changed its name to Auven Therapeutics Management.

The name change was made to overcome confusion related to other Celtic entities, which are not part of Auven Therapeutics. The rebranding reflects its mission to provide the gold (Au) standard in drug (Ven) development, progressing promising therapeutic pharmaceutical candidates in areas of unmet medical need.

Auven Therapeutics, based in the U.S. Virgin Islands with operations in New York and Switzerland, was founded by Dr. Peter B. Corr and Stephen Evans-Freke in 2007 and is pursuing an innovative investment strategy: While structured as a private equity fund, it also operates as a drug development company.

“Capitalizing on the wealth of expertise of our development team, we take ownership and control of the development of carefully selected clinical-stage therapeutic assets in order to build value around them to the point where they are attractive acquisition opportunities for established pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies,” said  Stephen Evans-Freke, co-founder and co-managing general partner.

Auven Therapeutics has a portfolio of biologic and small molecule therapeutic candidates, primarily comprising preclinical to mid-stage development programs, for therapeutic indications including cancer, ophthalmic conditions, women’s health and orphan diseases. It owns or holds a majority interest in the therapeutic assets of ADC Therapeutics, Spirogen, Resolvyx and Kiacta, and a minority investment in Kolltan and Sprout Pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Peter B. Corr, co-founder and co-managing general partner, added, “We are excited about our portfolio of innovative therapeutic assets. In particular, our investments in Spirogen and ADC Therapeutics have great potential to develop new and much more effective treatments for a variety of cancers.”