BioTheryX, Inc., a biotechnology company creating new classes of drugs for unmet medical needs based on multi-kinase inhibition and targeted protein degradation, today announced the appointment of Jeffrey Edwards to its board of directors. Mr. Edwards retired from Allergan, Inc. in February 2015 after nearly 22 years at the company. Mr. Edwards served as Executive Vice President, Finance and Business Development, Chief Financial Officer of Allergan, Inc. from September 2005 to August 2014. From 2003 to 2005, Mr. Edwards served as Allergan's Corporate Vice President, Corporate Development and previously served as Senior Vice President, Treasury, Tax and Investor Relations. Mr. Edwards currently serves on the board of directors and as Compensation Committee chairman and a member of both the Audit and Compliance Committees of Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., a publicly traded medical device diagnostics company. Mr. Edwards also serves on the board of directors and as Audit Committee chairman of FibroGen, Inc, a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company. He is also a director of Clearside Biomedical Inc., a publicly traded pharmaceutical company, where he is a member of both the Compensation Committee and Audit Committee. Mr. Edwards received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Muhlenberg College and completed the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School.
"We believe that Jeff's track record, experience and reputation in the business of biopharma are a great fit for BioTheryX as we transition from being a preclinical to a clinical stage biotechnology company with our lead compound, BTX-A51, on the cusp of human clinical trials," said David Stirling, CEO of BioTheryX. "We are delighted to have him on our Board, and we're looking forward to working with him as we also drive the lead compounds from our broad platform Protein Homeostatic Modulator ("PHM®") program toward the clinic in the burgeoning field of Targeted Protein Degradation."
In addition to Mr. Edwards, the BioTheryX Board currently includes:
- David Stirling, PhD – CEO/Founder (Co-founder and former CSO, Celgene) repositioned thalidomide as a breakthrough therapy for cancer, myelodysplastic syndrome and related conditions. Developed Celgene into a top-tier pharmaceutical business. Led effort to develop a class of antiproliferative and immunomodulatory drugs such as the targeted protein degrading "molecular glues" THALOMID®, REVLIMID®, and POMALYST®, as well as OTEZLA® and ADHD drug FOCALIN®
- Lawrence Zaslow, MBA – President/Founder, founding member of Amphion Innovations
- Louis DeGennaro, PhD – Board Member, CEO/President, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
About BioTheryX
BioTheryX was founded by the drug development team behind the remarkable IMiDs® franchise of compounds (a highly successful class of anti-cancer drugs), and is applying its extensive and proven commercial experience to deliver efficacious therapies to patients with unmet medical needs. Our lead drug candidates are orally available small molecules for the treatment of cancers and inflammatory diseases. In addition to the BTX-A51 multi-kinase program described above, BioTheryX's other technology platform is in the field of targeted protein degradation. This technology uses the body's own protein disposal system to selectively degrade and remove disease-causing proteins. It has potential applicability to a very broad range of disease targets, including a wide range of targets that have to date been considered "undruggable." In this area, BioTheryX's pre-clinical assets include a large and growing library of novel small molecule, cereblon-binding targeted protein degraders, which BioTheryX has termed Protein Homeostatic Modulators (PHM®). These IP-protected compounds are biologically active against a number of high value therapeutic targets in oncology, inflammation and other diseases. In addition to the therapeutic potential of these "molecular glue" molecules in their own right, these compounds also have a broad range of molecular orientations when bound to cereblon, providing a new level of structural control in the creation of bifunctional chimeric molecules that degrade high-value targets with great specificity. Recognizing this potential, BioTheryX has created a library of PHM-linked, biologically active chimeric molecules, including several that degrade the oncogenic targets of BTX-A51, thus dovetailing BioTheryX's two major programs.
