Lyn Cavas, the founder and CEO of the startup that rallied investors around a dark horse approach to treating Alzheimer’s before resigning last year over a data manipulation scandal, is back.
Kavas and billionaire investor Richard Cain announced on Friday the launch of Propel Bio, a new investment firm focused on “companies at various stages in the life sciences.”
The couple provided several other details about the new firm, with a spokesperson saying neither would speak in the recording or comment after it was posted “in accordance with SEC rules.” The SEC filing released Friday indicated that the company planned to raise $150 million, but did not indicate any funds raised to date.
Until last October, Kavas was the CEO of Athira Pharma. She founded the company while a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington, promising to expand the lab’s work on a method to activate the growth of synapses in the brain and potentially slow or reverse neurodegeneration. After years of obscurity, investors earmarked the company for an $85 million Series B in 2020, intrigued by early human data and the search for alternatives after the failure of more popular approaches to Alzheimer’s.
Kane, who founded asset management firm Kayne Anderson, invested in this Series B. He also invested $15.2 million in Series A in 2017. Forbes estimates his net worth at $1.6 billion.
However, last June, Atira abruptly announced that Kavas had been placed on temporary leave “pending review of actions arising from a doctoral study that Dr. Kavas conducted at the University of Washington.” Days before, pubpeer, a message board for scientists to discuss peer-reviewed papers, had allegations that Kavas had manipulated images in early publications.
In October, Athira announced that it had concluded that Kavas manipulated the images in her doctoral dissertation and four other documents underlying the company’s creation. Kavas stepped down, and new CEO Mark Litton argued that the company remains on solid footing, pointing out the differences between the founder’s early work and Athira’s current strategy.
Kavas has yet to publicly comment on the allegations.
She will be the general managing partner of Propel and Kane will be the general partner. The only other employee on the list is Senior Associate Dasom (Christine) Yu, who previously worked as Business Development Manager at Fred Hutch. They also announced a board of eight longtime biotech executives.