What happens when a seasoned biotech founder with a billion-dollar exit under his belt steps back into the arena with a product the FDA already calls “breakthrough”? You get Paradigm Therapeutics, a name that doesn’t just suggest a shift, it promises one.
Founded in 2023 by Dr. Robert Ryan, the same Robert Ryan who built Scioderm and sold it to Amicus Therapeutics for a cool $957M, Paradigm Therapeutics isn’t here to pitch another miracle cream, it’s here to deliver one. Based out of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina (because not every revolution needs a Silicon Valley zip code), the company is racing to bring its lead asset, SD-101 (Zorblisa™), to market. And they just locked in another $12.6 million from Eshelman Ventures to do it.
For those keeping score, that brings Eshelman Ventures’ total 2025 investment in Paradigm to $25.1M. Strategic capital from biotech icon Dr. Fred Eshelman, yes, that Fred Eshelman, founder of Pharmaceutical Product Development, the man with more exits than a stadium, and now also a strategic advisor to the company. That’s not just capital. That’s a greenlight from the guy who defines execution in pharma.
Let’s talk about the target: Epidermolysis Bullosa. If you’ve never heard of it, be grateful. If you’re one of the patients or caregivers dealing with it, you know the stakes. Blisters. Open wounds. Daily pain. It’s genetic cruelty in its rawest form. And until now, treatment has been a bandage, not a breakthrough.
SD-101 (Zorblisa™) is a topical cream containing 6% allantoin, designed for daily, whole-body use. No cryo chambers. No biotech theatrics. Just clinically proven healing. It’s completed Phase II and Phase III trials. It’s shown efficacy across all EB subtypes, Simplex, Recessive Dystrophic, and Junctional. And it comes with more FDA designations than most biotech unicorns: Breakthrough Therapy, Rare Pediatric Disease, and Orphan Drug in both the US and EU.
This isn’t about chasing valuations. This is about finishing what Scioderm started. Paradigm Therapeutics acquired SD-101 from Amicus Therapeutics in August 2023, and now they’re prepping for a 2025 NDA submission, global regulatory coordination, and full-on manufacturing scale-up. A team of less than ten. Backed by heavyweight advisors. With a market projected to hit $5.78B by 2032.
Paradigm Therapeutics isn’t selling a dream. It’s solving for a disorder no one else wanted to touch, by launching a product patients can use daily, safely, and effectively. In a field where complexity often becomes the excuse, this team chose clarity and impact.
And while everyone else was waiting for artificial intelligence to solve rare disease, Paradigm just went ahead and did it the old-fashioned way, hard science, smart funding, and real leadership. That’s how you shift the paradigm.
