Venture capitalist Luke Evnin has financed several successful biotechnology startups that develop treatments for cancer. Now he is encouraging drugmakers to tackle another disease: a rare autoimmune condition that he has himself.
Through the Scleroderma Research Foundation, a nonprofit that funds scleroderma research, Evnin has launched a new clinical trial platform, called Conquest, designed to accelerate drug development for the disease. Scleroderma often causes tightening and thickening of skin, and can affect the heart,…