JUPITER, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CHS Pharma Inc., an emerging biotechnology company located in Jupiter, Florida, has announced the addition of Robert S. Langer, Sc.D., to its Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Board. Langer has made pioneering contributions in drug delivery and regenerative medicine, and together with Judah Folkman, M.D., the founder of the field of angiogenesis, isolated the first substances that stopped blood vessels from growing which led to the first treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and many forms of cancer. Langer is one of 13 institute professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT’s highest honor) and holds more than 800 issued and pending patents. He is the most cited engineer in history with more than 90,000 citations and is the only person to be elected to all four U.S. national academies — Science, Engineering, Inventors, and Medicine, as well as having received the national medal of science and the national medal of technology and innovation.
“Dr. Langer’s expertise, coupled with our existing team will enable CHS to develop cutting-edge drugs that will have a major impact on multiple medical conditions,” said Stephen Chakoff, President & CEO of CHS Pharma Inc.
CHS’s platform technology includes treatments for cancer using a unique mechanism that protects normal cells while destroying cancer cells, as well as a treatment for AMD caused by oxidative damage, such as a treatment for individuals who are losing their sight due to dry AMD.
“Dry macular degeneration affects more than 30 million people and currently there are no highly effective treatment options available,” said Houman David Hemmati, M.D., Ph.D., an ophthalmologist. “CHS’s technology holds significant promise to resolve this unmet need.”
Langer previously served as the chair of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Science Board (their highest advisory board) and on the board of directors for Alkermes, Wyeth, and Millipore. He has received more than 200 awards including the Draper prize, which is considered the engineering Nobel Prize, the Wolf prize in chemistry, the Albany Medical Prize (the largest medical prize in the U.S.), and he holds 20 honorary doctorates including ones from Harvard and Yale.
“I’m delighted to be working with the CHS team on creating new therapeutics for dry AMD and other diseases,” said Langer.
CHS Pharma (www.chspharma.com) owns a platform technology, backed by an intellectual property portfolio consisting of four issued patents, two recently allowed and nine pending patent applications in the U.S. and abroad. CHS’s patented platform technology covers other potential treatments for illnesses such as stroke and cardiovascular disease. This technology is based on the discoveries by former pharmaceutical executive Herbert Weissbach, Ph.D., the current director of the Center for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology in Jupiter, Florida, and his collaborators at the Hospital for Special Surgery, affiliated with the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. Weissbach helped found the Roche Institute for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology and served as a Vice-President of Research at Roche. He is a member of both the National Academy of Science and the National Academy of Inventors.
“CHS Pharma is fortunate to have Dr. Langer who is a distinguished scientist and engineer on its Board of Directors,” said Weissbach. “His experience and success in helping life science companies develop their technologies will be of immense value to the company.”
