Arriva Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

WATERTOWN, Mass., Jan. 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- ZWI Therapeutics, Inc. (ZWI), a biotechnology company focused on the development of protein therapeutics using proprietary new polymers, announces a Series A financing, the appointment of pharmaceutical industry veterans Drs. Larry Miller and Ron Cohen as Independent Directors to the company's Board of Directors, and Dr. Ed Mascioli as Chief Executive Officer and Board Director. "After closing our Series A $10 million financing from Co-win Ventures and Sherpa Healthcare Partners, engaging such high caliber executives in our company is a testimony to the confidence successful entrepreneurs see in the ZWI technology. Ed Mascioli's significant experience leading multiple biotech companies is important in our Company's growth" said Dr. Shaoyi Jiang, the Robert Langer '70 Family and Friends Professor at Cornell University, ZWI Board member, and co-founder. "As board members, Ron and Larry collectively bring decades of successful pharmaceutical industry experience to ZWI. We will utilize their extensive expertise as ZWI advances its pipeline of wholly-owned and differentiated candidates that aim to tackle immunogenicity of protein therapeutics - a major challenge in biologics development" said Dr. Mascioli. ZWI created new polymers, based on polycarboxybetaine, with several advantages over polyethylene glycol (PEG), including reduced immunogenicity and preserved pharmacokinetics, and can be used on many protein therapeutics, lipid nanoparticles, and hydrogels. These novel polymers are supported by dozens of issued and pending patents and over 300 publications. ZWI's lead program, ZWI-001 (uricase-polycarboxybetaine conjugate), has demonstrated preclinical proof of concept and is currently in development to treat hyperuricemia in severe gout. ZWI has gained meaningful guidance on CMC, non-clinical, and clinical plans from the FDA via an INTERACT meeting and is progressing toward filing an IND. About ZWI Therapeutics, Inc. ZWI, founded in 2020 by Drs. Bob Langer and Shaoyi Jiang, is a biotechnology company using a novel, patented polymer, polycarboxybetaine, to develop protein-polymer conjugates with potentially superior safety and efficacy over currently marketed therapeutics conjugated with polyethylene glycol (PEG). I n preclinical animal models, polycarboxybetaine conjugates have demonstrated consistently low or no immunogenicity and excellent pharmacokinetics compared to PEG conjugates. These attributes are expected to translate to enhanced clinical durability and safety compared to pegylated drugs. The ZWI platform polymer technology is also broadly useful in the development of nanoparticles and hydrogels, the latter especially for cellular therapies. ZWI will out-license its technology to pharmaceutical companies for specific development programs. ZWI is headquartered in Waltham, MA, USA. For more information about ZWI platforms and pipeline, please visit , follow up on LinkedIn or contact us at info@zwitx.com. About Gout Gout is diagnosed in 3.9% of the U.S. population- up to 13 million patients - and is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis. Gout is a serious, lifelong disease that needs ongoing treatment and requires changes in lifestyle habits to achieve control. If poorly treated, advanced gout can lead to the same level of work loss, physical disability, and diminished quality of life as is seen in advanced rheumatoid arthritis. Gouty arthritis is caused by an accumulation of uric acid crystals in joints that causes severe pain, disfigurement and mobility restrictions. Uric acid crystals can also deposit in other tissues throughout the body, such as the kidney, which can lead to kidney stones, the skin (deposits called tophi) and even in vasculature walls. Beyond pain and disability, deposition of uric acid crystals triggers the inflammatory cascade and contributes to well-known comorbidities, including thromboses, stroke, and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE). Control of uric acid levels is the key to controlling gout and the inflammatory sequelae. Approximately 5-10% of patients, estimated at 250,000-400,000 people in the US, treated with oral urate lowering therapies do not respond adequately, and are termed refractory gout. Only one product is currently approved to treat refractory gout: KRYSTEXXA® (pegloticase, pegylated uricase). Refractory gout is an area of significant unmet medical need in a large market. Ron Cohen, M.D. is President, CEO, and founder of Acorda Therapeutics, Inc., a public biotechnology company developing therapies for disorders of the nervous system. Dr. Cohen previously was an officer of Advanced Tissue Sciences, Inc., a biotechnology company engaged in the growth of human organ tissues for transplantation uses. Dr. Cohen serves on the Boards of ZWI Therapeutics and of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO). He is past Chair of the Board of BIO's Emerging Companies Section, and of the New York Biotechnology Association (NYBA). He is a recipient of the NY CEO Lifetime Achievement Award and the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the New York Metropolitan Region. He was named Neuroinvestment's CEO of the Year and is an inductee of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association's "Spinal Cord Injury Hall of Fame". Dr. Cohen has been recognized by the NYBA as the "The Cures Start Here" Business Leader of the Year, by the Westchester County Association as its Leadership Award recipient, by Life Science Leader Magazine as True Life Science Leader of the Year, by PR Week/MM&M as one of the Health Influencer 50, by Scientific American as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Biotech, and by PharmaVOICE Magazine as one of the 100 Most Inspirational People in the Biopharmaceutical Industry. Dr. Cohen received his B.A. degree from Princeton University, and his M.D. from the Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons. He completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Virginia Medical Center, and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine. Larry Miller, M.D. currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer and Board Chair of Apnimed, a private biotechnology company which he co-founded in 2017 to develop therapeutics to treat obstructive sleep apnea. Since 1991, Dr. Miller has founded or co-founded 10 life sciences/healthcare companies including Macrolide Pharmaceuticals, HPR, Avicenna, PharMetrics, ImpactRx, Serenex, Optio Research, Tetraphase, and Activate, and has served as CEO or Board member or both in each case. Two of these companies completed public offerings and seven were acquired. Dr. Miller also co-founded the Mediphase funds, where he led investments in both private and public life sciences/healthcare companies, having served previously in a similar role at Hambrecht & Quist Capital Management. Dr. Miller received an A.B. from Harvard College, an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and completed clinical training in internal medicine and pulmonary disease at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He is Board certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Disease, and Clinical Pharmacology. Ed Mascioli, M.D. has been CEO of multiple private biotech companies, successfully selling two. Prior to his role as CEO, Dr Mascioli was a Venture Partner at SV Life Sciences. Previously, Dr. Mascioli was at Pfizer where he established a new unit in rare, orphan, and genetic diseases with assets aggregated from both external to and within Pfizer in hemophilia, muscular dystrophy, hereditary emphysema, cystic fibrosis, and mucopolysaccharidoses. Dr. Mascioli was also at MPM Capital, a leading healthcare venture capital firm with over $2.5B assets under management, where he led 10 financings totaling $299M, including new equity investments, bridge loans, and equity re-financings. Dr. Mascioli participated in the raising of two venture funds totaling $1.4B. As the investor representative, Dr. Mascioli has served as a Director on the Boards of Arriva Pharmaceuticals, Elixir Pharmaceuticals, Mindset BioPharmaceuticals, and Oxagen, Ltd., and as an Observer on the Boards of CGI Pharmaceuticals, Radius Health, and Peptimmune. Dr. Mascioli started his career on the faculty of Harvard Medical School as an Assistant Professor of Medicine and on the staff of the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston. Dr. Mascioli holds an M.S. from MIT, an M.D. from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and a B.A., cum laude, from Brandeis University. Co-win Ventures was founded in 2009 and is a top-tier China headquartered venture capital firm with a global vision to invest in high-tech and healthcare industries. With over USD 950 million under management to date, it has invested in more than 130 private companies with about half of them already exited through IPOs and M&A. Co-win has won multiple national and world-renowned venture capital awards. With professional teams based in China and the US, Co-Win becomes seeks to become a long-term partner for portfolio start-ups, assisting in building their companies, integrating industrial resources, and navigating with strategic insights. Sherpa Healthcare Partners was founded in 2018 by financiers who previously worked together in one of China's leading venture capital firms where they built and led its professional medical investment team, including setting up and leading investments in a dedicated healthcare fund. The founders have been teamed together in close co-operation, built on shared values, mutual trust, and complementary capabilities. Sherpa has now become an influential healthcare VC firm in the industry.

The last year has demonstrated that a sound financing strategy and compelling company narrative are essential to securing funding – it’s become more important than ever that investors are excited before taking the plunge. Given the current economic environment that is causing challenges in biopharma, how should companies be approaching funding in 2024? Listen to this discussion on different kinds of funding options available, how companies can optimize their chances to secure funding and how they should be assessing VCs in addition to alternative partners – particularly if your company will be seeking funding at JPM this January. Our host and guests also discuss current challenges, how to weather adversity, and what investment trends are anticipated for next year. This roundtable discussion occurs Thursday, January 4. Subscribe below to receive an update with a link to the video the morning it goes live. By submitting your email address, you agree to receive communications from BioSpace. PANELISTS Jeff Burton | Halia Therapeutics | CFO Jeff Burton joined Halia Therapeutics as the Chief Financial Officer in December 2020. ‌Prior to coming to Halia, Jeff was with Tolero Pharmaceuticals where he helped guide the company through several rounds of funding, the acquisition of Tolero by Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma for $200 million upfront and $500 million in milestones, and provided support for the successful filing of five INDs and completion of nine clinical trials. ‌Prior to Tolero, Jeff was at Fusion-io, where he helped the company successfully complete its IPO, secondary offering, several acquisitions, key system implementations, and the eventual acquisition of Fusion-io by SanDisk for more than $1.1 billion. ‌Jeff holds Bachelor and Master of Accounting degrees from the University of Utah. Karen Harris | The Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation | CFO and Head of Mission-Related Investing Karen Harris is a member of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation’s executive team and serves as its Chief Financial Officer and Head of Mission Related Investments. ‌With a CFO background that spans both non-profits and investment banking, Ms. Harris is committed to increasing transparency and accessibility of complex financial information and heightening organizational effectiveness with robust financial governance, strategic planning, policies, controls, and training. She regularly presents to the ADDF’s Boards of Governors and Overseers, launched a board-level Finance and Audit Committee, and oversees the organization’s banking relationships. As Head of Mission Related Investments, Ms. Harris has also structured and stewarded dozens of venture-based investments for the ADDF, and she manages and monitors its extensive portfolio of securities and royalty arrangements with universities and biotech companies. ‌Previously, Ms. Harris served as Chief Financial Officer for the East Harlem Tutorial Program and Director of Development at Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center. She also led a career in the financial sector for 20+ years prior to her transition to non-profit leadership. Among other roles, Ms. Harris served as Global COO for global equity capital markets, a $1 billion dollar division with 190 bankers at UBS, and as a Director and investment banker at Merrill Lynch. She earned an MBA in Finance from Stanford Graduate School of Business, graduating first in her class, and a BA in Economics from Columbia University. Rob Williamson | Triumvira Immunologics | President and COO Robert F. Williamson, III has been active in building biotechnology companies and shareholder value for over two decades. He currently is the President and COO of Triumvira Immunologics. Previously, he was the CBO of OncoMyx, an oncolytic virus company, and CEO of BioTheryX, a protein degradation therapeutics company, raising a $100M crossover round and preparing the company for an IPO. Prior to BioTheryX, Mr. Williamson served as CEO of both PharmAkea and ATXCo, oncology and fibrosis companies financed through a partnership with Celgene, until PharmAkea’s acquisition by Galecto and ATXCo’s acquisition by Blade Therapeutics. Prior, Mr. Williamson was CEO of Arriva Pharmaceuticals, President and COO of Eos Biotechnology, which he sold to Protein Design Labs, and COO of DoubleTwist, Inc. through its acquisition by Merck and Hitachi. ‌Mr. Williamson also serves as a director and adviser for foundations, private, and public companies. Notably, Mr. Williamson served as an early Director of Pharmasset, Inc., where he helped finance, grow, and advance the company into the public markets and through its acquisition by Gilead in 2011 for $11 billion. Earlier, Mr. Williamson was a partner with The Boston Consulting Group and a research assistant for the Federal Reserve Board. He received a BA in economics from Pomona College and an MBA from Stanford. HOST ⁠⁠⁠⁠Lori Ellis⁠⁠⁠ | BioSpace | Head of Insights Lori is the head of insights at BioSpace. She analyzes and comments on industry trends for BioSpace and clients. She creates engaging content for clients to support their marketing objectives. She has been part of an award-winning marketing team and has won a Muse Creative award, a Vega award and several Adobe awards in collaborative team projects for her audio narration work. Her experience in the television/film and audio industries benefits both BioSpace and partners through her moderation and hosting of live and virtual events. While she has covered all elements of the drug development process, her current focus is on the ever-evolving impact of technology – specifically artificial intelligence – on the pharmaceutical industry.⁠

None  Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of hirings, firings and retirings throughout the industry. Please send the good word—or the bad—from your shop to Max Bayer or Gabrielle Masson, and we will feature it here at the end of each week.  Frazier departs Merck after 30 years, leaving the executive chairman role for CEO Davis Merck After 30 years at Merck & Co., Ken Frazier is calling it a tenure at the New Jersey Big Pharma. It’s a career that began in 1992, with Frazier elevating himself up the corporate ladder, including positions as general counsel at the company. This culminated in his being named president and CEO in 2011, a position he held for 10 years before handing the baton over to Rob Davis. But since then Frazier has remained executive chairman of the company’s board. Now, that too will be handed over to Davis, effective Dec. 1.  In addition to his position at Merck, Frazier sits or has sat on the board of a number of other companies and organizations including Exxon, the National Constitution Center, General Catalyst and the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. He founded OneTen, an organization aimed at hiring Black employees without college degrees. Earlier this year, he joined the board of Eikon Therapeutics, a biotech startup in the Bay Area that’s poached a lot of top talent from Merck. On Thursday's earnings call, Davis thanked Frazier for his contributions to Merck and its employees. “Speaking personally, I'm deeply grateful for the inspiration, mentorship and support Ken has provided to me,” he said. Release GSK vaccine chief leaves amid reorganization of the medicines team GSK Gone from GSK is Hal Barron, M.D., the company’s longtime R&D chief. Joining him will be the company’s president of vaccines and global health Roger Connor. The company announced this week that Connor would be departing to seek a new role in healthcare outside of biopharma. The move comes as the company is bridging together its “medicines and vaccines manufacturing networks” and their associated commercial operations. The commercial strategy of the vaccines unit will now be headed by Chief Commercial Officer Luke Miels.  In recent years, GSK has worked to distinguish itself in the vaccines world, namely with its winning jab Shingrix to treat shingles as well as its meningococcal program. But the company is also in a neck-and-neck race with Pfizer to bring an RSV shot to market, with GSK recently boasting positive phase 3 results.  Regis Simard, president of the global supply chain, will now oversee the supply of both vaccines and other drugs while ViiV's CEO will take over the global health unit. Fierce Pharma Klein bolts CRISPR after almost 7 years CRISPR Therapeutics CRISPR Therapeutics is in the market for a new development chief with Lawrence Klein, Ph.D., headed elsewhere after nearly seven years at the company. The company says Klein is leaving to pursue external opportunities in the field but will remain on through the end of the year. Klein joined the company after more than five years at consulting behemoth McKinsey & Co., where he was an associate principal. He’s also a member of the board of Jasper Therapeutics and Dyne Therapeutics. As this column is authored by a pair of University of Wisconsin – Madison alums, we’d be remiss if we didn’t note that Klein is as well, with a degree in biochemistry and physics (go Badgers).  Klein’s departure comes at a critical moment for CRISPR Therapeutics, as it's slated to begin the approval application process with the FDA for its lead program, exa-cel, in November. The company expects to complete the filing by the end of the first quarter in 2023. It also has five other clinical-stage programs and others nearing clinical trials. CRISPR says a search is underway to find Klein’s replacement. Release > Acadia Pharmaceuticals President Srdjan (Serge) Stankovic, M.D., will be retiring at the end of the year. Stankovic has been with the company for seven years, leading R&D, and medical and scientific efforts. A search for his successor is ongoing. Release > Arturo Molina, M.D., is stepping down from his role as chief medical officer at Sutro Biopharma, effective Nov. 4. Molina will be pursuing other opportunities, according to Sutro, and CEO Bill Newell will oversee all clinical activities while the biotech searches for a replacement. Release > Jens Würthner, M.D., Ph.D., is changing direction, leaving ADC Therapeutics to take up a post at Scenic Biotech as chief medical officer. Before that, Würthner also led clinical development programs at Novartis, GSK and AstraZeneca. Release > Edward Fang, M.D., will be joining Adaptive Phage Therapeutics as the infectious disease biotech’s chief medical officer. Fang has previously served as chief medical officer at MicuRx Pharmaceuticals and Adenium Biotech, and before that held roles at Trius Therapeutics and Cerexa. Release > Enveda Biosciences has selected Mark Deeg, M.D., Ph.D., to serve as its chief medical officer. Deeg joins the biotech from Cullgen, where he was EVP and head of global clinical development. He also spent more than a decade with Big Pharma Eli Lilly. Release > Nathalie Franchimont, M.D., Ph.D., is leaving Biogen to serve as Nimbus Therapeutics’ chief medical officer. At the Big Pharma, Franchimont most recently served as SVP and head of the multiple sclerosis and immunology development unit. Before Biogen, she held roles at Amgen. Release > New biotech Normunity has emerged with $65 million and Rachel Humphrey, M.D., at the helm. Humphrey is the company’s founding CEO, with more than 25 years of experience, including leading the development of Bristol Myers Squibb’s Yervoy, AstraZeneca’s Imfinzi and Bayer’s Nexavar. Her biotech leadership roles include chief medical officer at Black Diamond Therapeutics, CytomX and Mirati. Fierce Biotech > Clinical-stage biotech Anokion is shaking up its team with several new executive appointments. Alison Long, M.D., Ph.D., who most recently served as Kaleido BioSciences’ chief medical officer, will fill the same role at Anokion. Stephanie Ann Haller has been appointed SVP of clinical operations after departing from her role as senior director of clinical operations and therapeutic area lead of nephrology at AstraZeneca’s Alexion. Glenn Booma, who has spent nearly 10 years serving as a consultant for life sciences companies, has been appointed chief strategy officer, while Kristie Grebe, Ph.D., has been promoted to SVP of immunology and translational medicine from her former role as VP of clinical and translational development. Release > Health tech company Element Science has tapped Trish Howell to fill the company’s newly created chief operating officer spot. Howell joins from Avail Medsystems, where she served as VP of operations. Release > Cassava Sciences is expanding its leadership team, adding Christopher Cook to its team in the newly created role of SVP and general counsel. Cook joins the neurodegenerative disease biotech from eye care company Alcon. Release > Triumvira Immunologics has appointed Robert Williamson to be president and chief business officer. Most recently, Williamson served as president and CEO of BioTheryx, and has also held leadership roles at PharmAkea, ATXCo, Arriva Pharmaceuticals, Eos Biotechnology and DoubleTwist. Release > George Kemble, Ph.D., will be stepping down from his CEO position at Sagimet Biosciences, transitioning to executive chair of the board as David Happel takes the head role. Happel joins from AI-tech company Cognoa, where he led as president and CEO  Release > PaxMedica has tapped Stefan Schwabe, M.D., Ph.D., as chief medical officer to oversee its development of antipurinergic drug therapies. Schwabe joins from Supernus Pharmaceuticals, where he was also chief medical officer, along with EVP of R&D. Release