The focal points of this process are the key scientific questions that must be explored in order to determine the safety and efficacy of a molecule. For each asset, we break down the most important scientific issues into very specific questions that can be answered with focused clinical experiments.

• Can the molecule be safely administered at levels that will produce a pharmacodynamic response?
• Can the biomarker provide an appropriate pharmacodynamic response in order to facilitate dose selection for Phase 2 studies?
• Will the molecule demonstrate a pharmacodynamic response in healthy volunteers through the disease state surrogate test?

Our attention is on questions that will, at the earliest stages of development, either increase the probability of technical success of a molecule by discharging significant risk or determine that the risk is unmanageable to continue development of the molecule with minimal investment.

Once key scientific questions are identified, the clinical experiment is then designed to determine answers in the safest and most effective manner for healthy volunteers and patients. To augment our internal expertise, we network with the most published and experienced academic and industry researchers around the world. A foundation of knowledge is established with input from these individuals and the questions are refined. At this point, the approach to hypothesis resolution is often crafted through the use of new and innovative technologies, unique biological markers that allow for early indicators of pharmacological response (safety and efficacy), novel surrogates/models for disease states, and adaptive clinical trial design. These creatively designed trials, along with the ability to skillfully initiate and execute these plans, are pivotal to Chorus's success.