Mark Pruzanski has found another fibrosis drug developer to lead, and this time he’s also venturing into oncology.
The biotech industry veteran has joined Swiss startup Alentis Therapeutics as its new CEO, the company exclusively told
Endpoints News
. Pruzanski is known for helping make the fatty liver disease NASH (now MASH) a hotspot as the longtime leader of Intercept Pharmaceuticals.
Alentis has multiple antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates already in clinical trials, thanks to a
$181.4 million Series D
last November. It’s testing the ADC candidates ALE.P02 and ALE.P03 in patients with certain CLDN1+ tumors. It’s also investigating the monoclonal antibody lixudebart in patients with varying forms of fibrosis, which includes scarring of certain organs.
Pruzanski succeeds Roberto Iacone, who has served as CEO since 2020. In an emailed statement, Iacone said he’s “confident Alentis will continue to thrive and reach new heights” under Pruzanski’s leadership.
Pruzanski’s decision-making has been instrumental elsewhere in the industry. After Intercept, he went on to lead Versanis Bio, which took a former Novartis muscle disorder drug and repositioned it as a muscle mass-sparing obesity medicine — then sold the biotech
to Eli Lilly
in a deal that could be worth as much as $1.9 billion. He’s also the chairman of obesity biotech
Verdiva Bio
, as well as the autoimmune startup
Abcuro
.
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All three of Alentis’ clinical-stage assets will have clinical data within the next year, Pruzanski said in an interview with Endpoints on Tuesday.
“We should have sufficient data to catalyze the next step in the company’s evolution from a financing, potential strategic standpoint,” Pruzanski said. That could include moving toward a possible IPO, he said.
A majority of the six-year-old biotech’s 40 employees are based in Basel. Pruzanski said he plans to remain in the New York area to help continue building a “transatlantic footprint.”
“As we continue to advance the current crop of clinical-stage assets and build out our pipeline, we’ve got a terrific internal discovery effort that’s ongoing focused on next-generation molecules. We’ll have to expand the company to build the pipeline as well,” Pruzanski said.
The role is Pruzanski’s first time as a cancer CEO.
“For the last number of years, after transitioning out of Intercept, I was flirting with the idea of getting into oncology,” Pruzanski said. “I looked at a lot of different companies and modalities, and Alentis is the first where I thought that this is truly exciting. ADCs, of course, are a modality that is proven but with a lot more room for innovation.”