Collgard Biopharmaceuticals Ltd. is developing therapeutics for disease from what its CEO believes is a completely different approach: tissue repair.

"[Collgard] was the first tissue therapeutics company developing regenerative medicines based on controlling the tissue-repair process," said CEO Bruce Bach, who has 25 years of experience in the medical field with devices, bioinformatics and drugs.

Privately held Collgard, based in Boston, was founded in 1996 by Medica Venture Partners, of Tel Aviv, Israel, where Collgard has offices. The company stands on a platform called Tempostatin, or halofuginone hydrobromide. Tempostatin is a synthetic small molecule that is a selective regulator of stromal cell activation, cell migration and collagen Type I synthesis.

Bach was announced as the new CEO Wednesday. The company also named Shai Yarkoni chief technical officer and David Snyder vice president, drug development.

"We're a pioneer in a new area," Bach said, adding that the company is working on the development of a new class of drugs to restore tissue after injury or after incidences such as physiologic stress.

"Tissues respond by rearranging their structure," Bach said. "What we have found is a master switch that will allow us to control that tissue-restructuring process."

The area of focus is fibro-suppression in end-stage failure for the kidney, liver and heart, although the company has programs in solid tumors, with special emphasis on the bladder, prostate, melanoma and brain, as well.

"[Tempostatin] is really interesting because it is orally available and has many functions, because it is specifically targeted to wherever the body has attempted tissue regeneration," Bach said.

Bach said that when he was in medical school, students were taught that diseases like liver cirrhosis were untreatable. Today, professors might have a different view.

"The body's a little more dynamic than we had thought," he said, adding that it is possible at the very least to slow down organ failure. "This is really about living system tissue architectural changes and that's what we mean when we talk about being a company treating the tissue stage of disease."

Most biopharmaceutical companies start with a well-defined molecular target, he said.

"We are not doing the needle in the haystack," Bach said. "We've identified a response that is a driver for many different diseases."

The compound is in Phase II trials for the prevention and treatment of organ failure, restenosis and certain cancers. Collaborators include the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.; the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md.; the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer in Brussels, Belgium; and Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Mass.

Collgard also is developing other derivative drug candidates in preclinical studies, and it is seeking partners for both its clinical and preclinical candidates, Bach said.

"If you look at the landscape, there are a lot of folks who have a need for solid Phase II candidates," he said.

The company, which has publicly disclosed raising at least $8 million, is now looking to raise $15 million in a Series B round that would be slated for the expansion of its Phase II program, Bach said. For example, the company wants to launch Phase II trials in fibro-suppression in the liver and renal areas.