Martine Clozel is a pediatrician specializing in neonatal intensive care. Jean-Paul Clozel is a cardiologist. During their career at F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, she initiated a research project which made history in the field of pulmonary arterial hypertension. She has published over 140 peer-reviewed papers on this topic and was rewarded several prizes. Jean-Paul Clozel was responsible for the selection of the first T-channel blocker. In 2007, he was nominated professor at the Collège de France in Paris (Chair of Technical Innovation).
At the end of 1997, Jean-Paul and Martine founded Actelion. With the sale to Johnson & Johnson in June 2017, Idorsia was established as a new biopharmaceutical company, specialized in the discovery and development of small molecules to provide innovative therapeutic options.
Martine and Jean-Paul Closel are CSO and CEO of Indoria Pharmaceuticals, the company they spun out of their previous biotech company, Actelion, in 2017. After the sale, stopping the kind of work they did was unimaginable for the couple. Still driven to pursue research, the couple saw founding Indorsia as a perfect solution. Optimistic from the beginning, they describe the early process as being much easier than their first company. Being able to draw on familiar employees, more financial resources and still highly motivated significantly ameliorated the process. Indorsia maintains a fascinating portfolio of research, including sleep medication in the third phase of testing that could provide a more natural sleep than other concurrent medications. Jean- Paul Closel describes the world as changing, and believes that while one shouldn’t forget past successes, it is still important to adapt and prepare for the future.