Paragon Labs has appointed former Apogee Therapeutics executives to its leadership team as Alaunos Therapeutics completed its acquisition of Velaris Therapeutics, a company developing pulmonary hypertension treatments based on Paragon-discovered assets.
Michael Henderson joins Paragon as chief executive, with Carl Dambkowski heading research and development. Dan Mulreany becomes chief business and financial officer, Matt Batters chief legal officer and Emily Cox chief people officer.
The executives previously worked together at Apogee, where they helped advance five Paragon-discovered assets into clinical development before AbbVie acquired Apogee in 2026 for more than $10.9 billion.
Paragon said the expanded team will support clinical development and help establish companies around its therapeutic candidates, beginning with Velaris. The appointments add development and operational expertise to the company’s existing discovery activities.
Velaris is the ninth biotechnology company established around Paragon-discovered programs and the first supported by the expanded leadership team. Its acquisition gives Alaunos a portfolio of ActRII-Fc ligand traps and complementary biologics for pulmonary arterial hypertension and related cardiopulmonary diseases.
The treatments are designed to address signaling imbalances involved in remodeling of the pulmonary vasculature. The pipeline includes VLR199, a ligand trap with broad activity, and VLR247 and VLR258, which use distinct ActRII extracellular domains.
VLR247 and VLR258 are designed to spare BMP-9 and BMP-10, with the aim of lowering the risk of hematologic adverse events. These are development objectives rather than clinical findings reported in the release.
Velaris is also developing VLR360, an anti-PDGF-B monoclonal antibody intended for evaluation alone or in combination with ActRII-Fc therapies. All of the company’s assets were discovered by Paragon.
Fairmount, a life sciences investment firm, founded Paragon in 2021. The companies’ model combines drug discovery, licensing and formation of biotechnology businesses around selected programs.
The nine companies built on Paragon-discovered assets are Apogee, Spyre Therapeutics, Oruka Therapeutics, Jade Biosciences, Crescent Biopharma, Korsana Biosciences, Mentari Therapeutics, Damora Therapeutics and Velaris. Paragon and Velaris are based in Waltham, Massachusetts. Paragon said its expanded leadership will bring clinical development and regulatory considerations into earlier decisions as programs take shape and companies license selected assets for further development.
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