Accelerating Therapies for Rare Pediatric Diseases
The AFFORD Fund is an innovative funding vehicle dedicated to advancing pediatric healthcare through revenue-based financing of preclinical- and clinical-stage therapies eligible for FDA Pediatric Priority Review Vouchers.
Our team combines deep expertise in pharmaceutical development, regulatory affairs, and healthcare finance to identify and support the most promising pediatric therapy projects.
We believe that financial innovation can accelerate life-saving treatments for children while generating attractive returns for investors through the pediatric PRV program.
Why Pediatric PRVs?
The FDA's Pediatric Priority Review Voucher program incentivizes development of treatments for rare pediatric diseases. PRVs can be sold or used to accelerate review of other products, with recent market values ranging from $80M to $205M in recent years.
This creates a unique value proposition: funding that serves both humanitarian goals and financial returns, while allowing companies to retain equity and control.
Why
The Funding Gap in Pediatric Rare Diseases
Pediatric rare diseases represent one of the most underserved frontiers in medicine. Over 7,000 rare diseases affect an estimated 300 million people worldwide — nearly 70% of whom are children. Yet fewer than 5% have an approved treatment. The reasons are as much financial as scientific.
Why Funding Falls Short
Traditional venture capital and pharma investment logic is built on market size, revenue potential, and scalability. Pediatric rare diseases fail virtually every one of these screens. Small patient populations mean limited commercial upside. Long, uncertain development timelines strain investor patience. And the complexity of pediatric trials — from ethical considerations to age-appropriate formulations — adds layers of cost and risk that further deter conventional funders.
Orphan drug designations and Priority Review Vouchers were landmark policy innovations designed to correct this market failure — yet capital remains structurally insufficient. Many promising programs stall not for lack of science, but lack of funding.
Ideas Toward a Solution
Several complementary approaches could meaningfully close the gap:
PRV-backed revenue financing — as pioneered by AFFORD — decouples funding from equity dilution and market-size logic, anchoring returns to a tangible, monetizable regulatory asset rather than commercial forecasts.
Blended finance structures combining philanthropic first-loss capital with private investment can de-risk early-stage programs sufficiently to attract institutional funders who would otherwise remain on the sidelines.
Disease-specific investment consortia — bringing together patient advocacy organizations, academic medical centers, and impact investors — can pool diligence, share risk, and co-fund development in a coordinated way that no single actor could sustain alone.
Outcome-based government co-funding, where public agencies provide milestone-contingent grants matched to private capital, would further reduce the binary risk that deters investors from committing to long development horizons.
Streamlined regulatory pathways, including expanded use of adaptive trial designs, real-world evidence, and natural history data from patient registries, can materially reduce both the time and cost of reaching approval — making programs more fundable at the outset.
The Opportunity Ahead
The convergence of advances in gene therapy, rare disease biology, and regulatory innovation has never been more promising. What remains missing is a funding architecture equal to the opportunity. Models that align financial returns with therapeutic impact — rather than treating them as competing priorities — are not just ethically compelling. They are commercially viable, and increasingly, competitively necessary.
Our Model
Identification and deep assessment of drug projects
AFFORD's selection combines proprietary AI-driven screening with expert validation by our team and advisors. Funding decisions are made by an Investment Committee of Board members and funders, ensuring full stakeholder alignment before capital is committed.
Key Selection Criteria
Pediatric PRV eligibility — a gateway criterion
Likelihood of Approval (LOA) — across clinical, regulatory, and scientific dimensions
Accelerated path to approval — via Accelerated Approval pathways and patient registries
Undisputable unmet medical need — no adequate therapeutic alternative exists
Blue Ocean positioning — sparse Standard of Care and limited pipeline competition
Clear disease pathology & defined MoA — scientific clarity is non-negotiable
Exceptional management teams — spanning development, manufacturing, regulatory, and commercial expertise
A Differentiated Investment Lens
AFFORD places limited weight on market size or valuation. Our exit is singular: FDA approval and the concurrent PRV grant — keeping our interests fully
Revenue-based funding of carefully selected projects
AFFORD provides project capital secured against future Priority Review Voucher (PRV) ownership transfer — enabling biotech sponsors to reach FDA approval without sacrificing equity, while offering funders a compelling, asset-backed return pathway.
Funding is activated upon execution of a Funding Agreement. Capital is then deployed via an initial tranche targeting the next key development milestone. Each milestone reached unlocks a subsequent tranche — keeping development on track from early-stage research through FDA approval.
PRV Value Sharing
The future PRV — a transferable FDA incentive with significant market value — serves as the cornerstone of AFFORD's return structure. Each party's ownership stake in the PRV is determined by the risk-adjusted Net Present Value (rNPV) of this virtual asset at the time of funding. This rNPV-based methodology ensures that value sharing is transparent, mathematically grounded, and fairly proportional to the capital deployed and risk assumed by each stakeholder.
Targeting FDA approval and Priority Review Voucher grant
Upon FDA approval, the associated Priority Review Voucher is formally granted and ownership is transferred to AFFORD as defined in the Funding Agreement. AFFORD then proceeds to monetize the PRV — typically through a sale to a major pharmaceutical company, where established market demand consistently drives strong transaction values.
PRV transactions have recently ranged between $100M and $150M, with select vouchers commanding values exceeding $200M, reflecting the strategic premium large pharmaceutical companies place on accelerating their own FDA review timelines.
Where PRV ownership is shared between AFFORD and the sponsor, sale proceeds are distributed proportionally, reflecting each party's ownership stake as originally determined by the rNPV-based methodology at the time of funding.
This exit mechanism delivers a clean, time-defined liquidity event for funders, while ensuring sponsors receive fair value — transforming a regulatory milestone into a tangible, shared financial return for all stakeholders.
Team
Christian Girard
Co-Founder, Board Member & Chief Investment Officer
Christian Girard is a multidisciplinary entrepreneur, strategist, and rare disease champion whose 30-year career spans executive search, M&A, political advisory, and a sustained commitment to building the rare disease biotech ecosystem.
Christian's formative years encompassed financial executive search, M&A advisory in luxury goods, retail distribution, and advertising, and a political advisory practice — cultivating the cross-sector fluency that would later prove invaluable in rare disease drug development. He holds a Master in Management (MiM) from ESCP Business School.
Christian's most consequential contribution to the field is his invention of a non-dilutive funding mechanism anchored in the monetization of Priority Review Vouchers as a virtual asset. By treating the PRV as a quantifiable, risk-adjusted asset from the earliest stages of development, his model enables sponsors to access capital without surrendering equity — while offering funders a transparent, asset-backed return tied to a well-defined liquidity event. This insight is the intellectual cornerstone of AFFORD.
Over three decades, Christian co-founded several biotechs addressing orphan diseases, built a consulting practice spanning Genzyme, Acer Therapeutics, Univercells, and Anagenesis Biotechnologies, and mastered the full spectrum of alternative funding — EU mechanisms, patient organization advocacy, and equity crowdfunding.
As founder and strategic architect, Christian brings his invention, his network, and three decades of rare disease expertise to bear — making him the defining force behind AFFORD's mission and vision.
Don Joseph
Co-Founder, Board Member & Chief Financial Officer
Don Joseph is a seasoned biopharmaceutical executive and legal strategist with over 25 years of experience spanning corporate law, business development, global health, and rare disease drug development.
Don holds a law degree from the University of Texas School of Law and has held senior legal and operational roles across a distinguished roster of biopharmaceutical organizations. His career spans Elan Pharmaceuticals, Abgenix, Renovis, Novacea, and ChemGenex, before taking on the role of Chief Legal Officer and Board Secretary of KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, a publicly listed biopharmaceutical company. Prior to KaloBios, he served as Chief Executive Officer — and before that Chief Operating Officer — of BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH), where he helped pioneer milestone-based funding models for neglected and rare diseases.
Don joined Acer Therapeutics as Chief Legal Officer and Secretary in April 2018, guiding its legal and regulatory strategy across a portfolio focused on serious rare diseases. He is also associated with The PRV Fund Project, rebranded to The AFFORD Fund, reflecting a longstanding focus on Priority Review Voucher strategy and rare pediatric disease financing — the very foundation of AFFORD's model.
Don brings deep legal expertise, rare disease operational experience, and a genuine commitment to ensuring every investment is built on a sound, strategically aligned foundation in service of AFFORD's mission.
Serge Braun
Chief Scientific Officer
Serge Braun is a distinguished scientist, drug developer, and rare disease advocate with over three decades of experience spanning academia, biotechnology, and patient advocacy at the highest level.
He holds a degree in Pharmacy and a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Strasbourg, France, and completed postdoctoral training at the Neuromuscular Center, School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
He launched his industry career at Transgene SA, the largest French biotech company, where he rose to Vice-President of Research, developing expertise in gene therapy for genetic diseases and immunotherapy for cancer. He also co-founded Neurofit, a contract research organization specializing in preclinical testing of the central and peripheral nervous system.
Since 2005, Serge has served as Scientific Director of AFM-Télethon, the French Muscular Dystrophy Association, and as President of Genosafe, a CRO dedicated to quality control of biotherapeutic products. In these roles, he has been instrumental in shaping France's rare disease research landscape and channeling Télethon-raised capital into transformative therapeutic programs.
He is a Member of the French National Academy of Pharmacy and holds board responsibilities across multiple biotech and service companies.
At AFFORD, Serge brings unparalleled scientific credibility, deep regulatory insight, and a lifelong commitment to ensuring that children with rare diseases have access to the therapies they deserve.
Steve Aselage
Board Member
Steve Aselage is one of the rare disease industry's most accomplished and respected executives, bringing more than 40 years of experience spanning commercial leadership, corporate development, and CEO-level stewardship of companies dedicated to patients with serious unmet medical needs.
Steve began his career in sales and sales management at Bristol Laboratories and Rhône-Poulenc Rorer Pharmaceuticals, before moving into increasingly senior roles at Genentech, Sangstat Medical Corporation, and Advanced Tissue Sciences. These formative years grounded him in the commercial and scientific realities of bringing complex therapies to patients — experience that would define the arc of his career.
At BioMarin Pharmaceutical, where he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer, Steve built the commercial and medical affairs functions that launched three commercial products and developed commercial business across more than 45 countries — establishing BioMarin as a global rare disease leader.
As CEO of Retrophin — later renamed Travere Therapeutics — from 2014 to 2019, Steve drew upon his deep biopharmaceutical expertise to lead the transformation of the company, solidifying its leadership, rationalizing its pipeline, and building a durable growth strategy around rare disease therapies with genuine patient impact.
Steve currently serves as Chairman of Acuitas, as a Director at BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, and as a Senior Advisor to IntraBio. He also serves on the advisory council of the University of Notre Dame Department of Science. He previously served as Chairman of Acer Therapeutics, where his rare disease expertise and governance experience proved instrumental to the company's strategic direction. Steve holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Notre Dame.
His operational depth, industry relationships, and unwavering patient focus make him an exceptionally valuable advisor and partner as AFFORD deploys its innovative PRV-based funding model to accelerate the next generation of rare pediatric disease therapies toward FDA approval.
Chris Schelling
Board Chair
Chris Schelling is a serial rare disease entrepreneur, commercial strategist, and patient advocate whose career has been defined by a singular conviction: that patients with ultra-rare diseases deserve access to life-changing therapies — and that building the companies to deliver them is both a business imperative and a moral one.
Chris brings more than 18 years of biotech and pharma strategic and orphan drug expertise. Prior to founding Acer, he served as Executive Director of Strategic Marketing at BioMarin Pharmaceutical, where he was instrumental in the development and commercialization of the company's phenylketonuria (PKU) franchise. Previously, he held roles at Abgenix, Cell Therapeutics, Stanford Research Institute Consulting, and Organon.
Chris founded Acer Therapeutics in December 2013, building it into a Nasdaq-listed company focused entirely on serious ultra-rare diseases. Acer's pipeline included EDSIVO for vascular Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and ACER-001 for Maple Syrup Urine Disease — two devastating conditions with no FDA-approved treatments. Following years of development and commitment to rare disease communities, Acer achieved FDA approval of OLPRUVA for urea cycle disorders — a landmark milestone that validated the company's patient-first philosophy. Acer was subsequently acquired by Zevra Therapeutics.
Chris also founded Censa Pharmaceuticals in 2015, which was sold to PTC Therapeutics in May 2020. He earned a B.A. in Biology and History from Carroll College.
Chris brings rare disease entrepreneurial experience spanning commercial strategy, regulatory navigation, patient advocacy, and successful M&A exits — making him an invaluable partner in evaluating and supporting the programs AFFORD funds toward FDA approval.
Portfolio
Frequently Asked Questions
Who can apply for funding from The AFFORD Fund?
Typically, pharma and biotech companies, foundations, patient organizations, researchers, and developers working on eligible pediatric therapies can seek investment from The AFFORD Fund.
How can I contact The AFFORD Fund for more information?
You can reach out through the contact page on our website or email us directly at christian@afford.fund.
Are there any risks associated with financing The AFFORD Fund?
As with any funding in early-stage therapies, there are risks related to clinical trial outcomes, regulatory approvals, and market acceptance.