Ver­sant gam­bles $20 mil­lion on a UCSD spin­out fo­cused on NASH and fi­bro­sis

Back in the spring of 2015, Jef­frey Stafford helped set up a deal with Cel­gene to ac­quire the drug dis­cov­ery plat­form he helped cre­ate at San Diego-based Quan­ti­cel for up to $485 mil­lion, and went along to help shep­herd the next stage as an ex­ec­u­tive at the sub­sidiary.

Now, he and his for­mer back­ers at Ver­sant have joined forces again to launch a new pre­clin­i­cal start­up fo­cused on the hot R&D field of NASH and fi­bro­sis. And he’s joined by long­time col­league Jim Veal, who is the new CSO at the fledg­ling Je­cure Ther­a­peu­tics.

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