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Bronxville Woman's Innovative Approach To Tackle Autism Earns Tech Award

RYE, N.Y. -- Dr. Joan Fallon has been an out-of-the-box thinker in a field that has for generations has taken traditional scientific paths. The inroads made by the Bronxville woman have been revolutionary, especially with autism and related disorders.

Dr. Joan Fallon of Rye-based Curemark will be among the honorees Thursday at the Women In Tech luncheon in Tarrytown. The luncheon is hosted by the Westchester County Association.

Dr. Joan Fallon of Rye-based Curemark will be among the honorees Thursday at the Women In Tech luncheon in Tarrytown. The luncheon is hosted by the Westchester County Association.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Curemark

Fallon, the chief executive officer of Rye-based Curemark, will be one of five women honored Thursday at the Westchester County Association’s Women In Tech luncheon at Tappan Hill Mansion. The luncheon honors the achievements of women from Westchester County in the technology, health technology, and biotech fields.

Curemark is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapies to treat serious diseases for which there are limited treatment options. She filed her first patent application in 1999. Curemark’s pipeline, according to its website, includes products for autism, ADHD, Parkinson’s Disease, schizophrenia and addiction.

In an interview with LeadersMag.com last year, Fallon said the company’s focus has been to get new drugs to children to help them with autism. It affects 1 in 42 boys, and 1 in 68 children.

“It wasn’t long ago that we thought it was 1 in 250,’’ Fallon said in the interview. “So it’s a big difference in terms of the prevalence of the autism spectrum disorder. I would have also thought that by now there would be other drugs further along in development, but there aren’t. This saddens me because it’s important that the children have options for treatment, both in behavioral therapies and cognitive therapies, and in terms of drug therapy.”

Fallon said Curemark has a “fast-track” designation from the Food & Drug Administration that will expedite the review of new drugs that treat serious conditions and might be able to address unmet medical needs. “We’re well down the road to bringing the first drug to market for core symptoms for autism,’’ Fallon said.

Fallon’s approach has also been unique. “Most biotech companies take venture capital and follow a path to an IPO. There has been no venture capital for autism drugs, period. So we’ve had to raise money in another fashion. This is a very different model of drug development than the one that has been used in the past,’’ she said.

Fallon said most drug development involved looking at compounds created in a lab that can be patented, then retrofitting them into disease states. She feels, however, that process showed a decreased probability of success.

“When it comes to disrupting how drugs are discovered, we took the patient-centered model where we looked at the needs of patients, and formulated a drug to treat them. We tested it with those patients and, hopefully, once it’s approved, we can get it to all of the patients who need it. We also disrupted the medical paradigm by thinking that giving a drug to aid in a digestive process could actually change neurology.”

Fallon said more funding research from a non-traditional approach could help expedite treatment for autism and other diseases. “It took a water bucket challenge to bring awareness to ALS, even though ALS bears the name of the very famous baseball player, Lou Gehrig,’’ she said.

The other luncheon honorees are JoAnn Difede, PhD, director of the Program for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Studies at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and professor, Department of Psychiatry at Weill Medical College of Cornell University; Lynn Macdonald, PhD, executive director, Pain, Neurology & VI Next, at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals; Andrea Soto, vice president, MasterCard; and Rebecca Sommi, senior vice president of operations, support, and engineering at Broadview Networks. Linda Sanford, Linda Sanford, senior advisor, IBM Corporation, will deliver the keynote address.

Click here to read more about the event on the Westchester County Association website. 

This article is part of a paid Content Partnership with the advertiser, Westchester County Association. Daily Voice has no involvement in the writing of the article and the statements and opinions contained in it are solely those of the advertiser.

To learn more about Content Partnerships, click here.

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