Woman to Watch: Meet the Woman Who is Helming Boston's Cocoon Biotech
February 17, 2017
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
BOSTON – Ailis Tweed-Kent, founder and chief executive officer of Boston-based Cocoon Biotech Inc. has been named one of the "2017 Women to Watch in Science and Technology" by the Boston Business Journal.
Tweed-Kent was one of 10 women in Massachusetts to be tapped for the 2017 list, which recognizes “New England’s female technology and business leaders; the innovators who are helping to build new companies and drive established tech companies in new directions.”
Tweed-Kent and the other recipients were honored at an awards breakfast on Thursday.
"I am honored, humbled and thankful to be named as a leader in this field of incredibly bright women who are each committed to making important advances in their respective areas of science and technology," Tweed-Kent, said in a statement. "My hope is that the important work that we are doing at Cocoon Biotech will ultimately improve the lives of thousands of patients worldwide who are suffering from osteoarthritis."
Founded in 2013, Cambridge, Mass.-based Cocoon Biotech focuses on the development of treatments for arthritis and other debilitating diseases. Earlier this month, Cocoon forged a partnership with Carmargo Pharmaceutical Services to develop new formulations to treat osteoarthritis for patients who have found existing treatments to be unsatisfactory. The first joint program will involve biocompatible silk fibroin loaded with a small molecule therapeutic. Cocoon’s lead silk fibroin platform is a hydrogel loaded with a small molecule drug that aims to provide long-term relief of pain and inflammation when injected into the joint of patients living with osteoarthritis, according Tweed-Kent’s bio on the company website. Before founding Cocoon, Tweed-Kent worked on the “design, development, and delivery of diagnostic technologies for global health collaborating with organizations such as PEPFAR/Office of U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Global Health Delivery Project.”
Tweed-Kent founded Cocoon while she was a resident in medical school. She founded the company after treating patients whose chronic arthritis was having a serious negative impact on their ability to lead a normal life, according a Cocoon statement.
In September 2016, Cocoon was the winner BioPharm America’s Start-Up Day Pitch Competition.
Carolyn Jones, publisher of the Boston Business Journal, said the women chosen this year were chosen as leaders in their field “who are driving the state’s innovation economy while serving as role models for countless other women.”