Translating science into therapies, for one or for many.

It’s early in 2020 and Omid & I were introduced to each other by another member of the rare disease community. When we first met, we realized that we shared the same vision – that translating science into therapies needs more than just technology, we need a different business model.

We need a company that cares about exactly the same thing as the patient community: a tangible treatment as fast and reliably as possible, not contingent on its novelty or ability to be commercialized.

Omid and I also shared a deep belief in the power of patient advocacy and research foundations – often started by people that have an incredible drive to solve the disease that they and their loved ones are having to deal with. It is hard to find more painful, heartbreaking stories that are at the same time immensely beautiful and inspiring. We have listened to many of these stories first hand, as we are dealing with genetic diseases personally. Rarebase was born out of our desire to help the entire rare disease community and leverage our respective resources and background to do so. We are set to build an A-team that works alongside the patient community to translate science into therapies, for one or many.

We incorporated Rarebase as a public benefit biotechnology corporation on July 23rd, 2020.

Even though it’s been only 4 months, it already feels as if we've been at this a long time. Maybe it feels this way because the primary reason Rarebase exists is to help people that are short on time, all the time.

If you are working on a rare disease to help one of your loved ones (or yourself), you know that you will always need to balance speed with good decision making. This is no different than any company in startup mode. In this case however the people we build Rarebase for, our customers, are also experiencing this feeling every single day. We are building this company to supercharge the intention of rare disease research foundations: accelerate the development of new treatments for the patient community.

When Omid and I just started working together, I remember asking him what his goal is with Rarebase. He told me something I will not forget. His answer was “to successfully treat one person”. It seems like a humble goal for a new company to have, but I realized there are not many companies in the healthcare space that can actually say they “helped successfully treat someone”. By sheer numbers, rare diseases disproportionately impact children and teenagers.

Successfully treating one kid is our north star, it would mean a true validation of our product cycle, and it will be the first time we actually have something tangible to celebrate.

We have just closed our first financing round of $2.7M from BlueYard, patients and families and other people that truly care about our mission and re-inventing the way rare disease therapies are developed. Our investors are part of our DNA. The BlueYard team are out of the box thinkers, have invested in other incredible companies and are truly on board with our thesis. Although closing a financing round is great news for the company, it is not something we are celebrating. Closing a financing round, onboarding amazing team members to help execute our mission, the start of working with a new patient organization; they’re all good things on our path and while we are grateful for those opportunities, again, we won’t celebrate until we successfully treat one kid. 

Read more about what we can do for your cause here, or reach out to talk to us.

Onno Faber
Co-Founder and CEO

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