Thornberry Ltd.

SEATTLE--( BUSINESS WIRE )-- Reverba , a leading global patient engagement company, today announced the appointment of Peter J. Brown, MBA, as President. He brings more than 20 years of experience in life sciences, healthcare and patient engagement, with a track record of driving growth in highly complex, competitive markets and successfully scaling organizations to support expanding service and product offerings. “We are delighted to welcome Peter to Reverba. His experience enhances the leadership team and strengthens our ability to transform the way biopharmaceutical companies think and function by incorporating compliant, patient-centered action at the core of their business,” said Cheryl Lubbert, CEO and co-founder of Reverba. “Peter brings the ideal skills we need to accelerate our growth and deliver value for healthcare organizations and patients.” Brown joins Reverba at an exciting time, as the company is expanding its proprietary, compliant patient engagement solutions and services to connect biopharma companies with patients to amplify the impact of patient voices. “I am excited to take on this role at Reverba, a foundational company that helped create the patient engagement space,” said Peter Brown, President of Reverba. “I see an extraordinary opportunity for Reverba to expand the company’s offerings, built on deep understanding of secure technology solutions that enable meaningful connections with patients.” Brown joins Reverba from his role as President, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of Thornberry, provider of hospice and home health software solutions, where he drove market strategy, product development, operations and sales against aggressive financial and operational performance targets, leading two major platform technology initiatives and significant product enhancements. Concurrently, he was Founder and President of Proinligo Consulting, providing support to payers, providers and health systems for digital health services and engagement. He is a Fellow of the Academy for Healthcare Management and holds a Bachelor of Economics from Union College and an MBA in Management from McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University. About Reverba Reverba is a global patient engagement company that creates transformative tech-enabled solutions to build a bridge between patients and biopharmaceutical companies, from discovery to clinical development through commercialization. Utilizing its clinical and commercial divisions, Reverba provides comprehensive custom patient engagement solutions with its proprietary reverbaBRIDGE™ technology platform. Reverba infuses compliance throughout its technology platforms and patient engagement solutions, maintaining SOC 2, Type II certification for the highest level of security. For more information, visit reverba.com or contact connect@reverba.com .

December 10, 2015 By Alex Keown , BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff NEW YORK -- Kallyope Inc. , a new biotech company focused on harnessing the potential of the gut-brain axis, launched this morning backed by $44 million in Series A funding and is being helmed by Nancy Thornberry , a Merck & Co. vet with a specialty in diabetes and endocrinology. New York-based Kallyope was founded with an idea of harnessing the communicative pathways between the digestive tract and the brain to develop therapies to treat various illnesses. Thornberry said the company’s approach would not have been possible a few years ago, but since the discovery of the “gut-brain circuits” the company can develop a range of therapeutic approaches. In an interview with Forbes, Thornberry said the company’s technology will look at ways in which cells in the intestines actually affect the brain, signaling such things as whether or not the body is still hungry, or if there is some sort of discomfort. She said the technology can help the company focus on several disease areas, as well as a possibility of developing consumer products. However, what those areas are, the company has not yet disclosed. The company said it will leverage cutting-edge technologies including sequencing, genetics, circuit mapping, neural imaging and bioinformatics. “The gut-brain axis functions as a two-way information highway between the gut and the brain, providing an unprecedented opportunity to access and influence brain centers involved in a variety of fundamental human processes. Kallyope has put together an exciting, state-of-the-art program to understand how the gut communicates with other organs and our brains about our physiological, metabolic and internal state,” Tom Maniatis , a co-founder of Kallyope and a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons , said in a statement. Thornberry told Forbes the company’s technology would have likely been able to discover the GLP-1 (glucagon like peptide-1) which can be used to treat diabetes. GLP-1-based drugs are manufactured by a number of companies, including Danish-based Novo Nordisk . Novo Nordisk manufactures several GLP-1 diabetes treatments, including Victoza, which is marketed under the brand name Saxend in the United States. In April, Novo Nordisk announced its Saxend , a once-daily glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist for chronic weight management in adults, was available for sale in the United States. Obese individuals often develop type 2 diabetes. The company is backed by investments from Lux Capital , Polaris Partners and The Column Group . Other notable investors include Illumina Inc. , Tony Evnin , and Alexandria Venture Investments , Kallyope said in a statement. “What Kallyope is doing represents a hugely exciting venture into the untapped therapeutic and nutritional potential of the gut-brain axis, which no other biotech has unlocked and translated. We believe that Kallyope is pioneering an area of science that will fundamentally change how drugs and nutritional products are made, targeted, and administered,” Josh Wolfe , Kallyope board member and managing partner of Lux Capital , said in a statement. Kallyope has taken over laboratory space at the Alexandria Center for Life Science , a state-of-the-art, collaborative life science campus in Manhattan. Kallyope said the location will allow it to “draw upon the city’s deep talent pool and diverse resources.”