SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company (Nasdaq: LJPC) (the Company or La Jolla), a leader in the development of innovative therapies intended to significantly improve outcomes in patients suffering from life-threatening diseases, today announced the addition of four new members to its advisory board for the development of LJPC-401, La Jolla’s novel formulation of hepcidin. The advisory board is composed of internationally renowned clinicians, highly respected academics and key opinion leaders in the fields of gastroenterology, hematology and oncology. The new members of the advisory board are Paul Adams, M.D., Victor Gordeuk, M.D., Ashutosh Lal, M.D., and Gordon McLaren, M.D.
La Jolla seeks the advisory board’s guidance on all aspects of LJPC-401’s therapeutic development, including unmet medical needs, new targets and paths, target validation, optimal indications, patient populations and trial designs. The advisory board further connects La Jolla to specific and relevant expertise that enhances La Jolla’s efforts to base its therapeutic programs on the best science and critical thinking.
“We are very pleased to bring these key thought leaders together to strengthen La Jolla’s advisory board for the development of LJPC-401,” said George F. Tidmarsh, M.D., Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of La Jolla. “This advisory board provides strategic guidance to the LJPC-401 development program, in which we expect to start a Phase 1 clinical trial later this year.”
Paul Adams, M.D., is a Professor of Medicine and Chief of Gastroenterology at the University of Western Ontario, in London, Ontario. Dr. Adams has been working in the field of hemochromatosis and iron overload since 1977. He graduated from medical school at Queens University (Kingston, Ontario) in 1980 and completed internal medicine training in Toronto and New York (Mount Sinai). He completed a gastroenterology fellowship at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) and studied hemochromatosis at the Liver Research Unit of the Royal Brisbane Hospital in Australia and the Liver Research Unit in Rennes, France.
Victor Gordeuk, M.D., is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Illinois. Dr. Gordeuk specializes in treatment of patients with sickle cell disease and in conducting research to understand new ways to prevent complications of this condition. He has expertise in treating disorders of iron metabolism, including iron overload and iron deficiency. He also has a research and treatment interest in patients with congenital or unexplained polycythemia. He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, completed an internship and residency at York Hospital and a fellowship at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine.
Ashutosh Lal, M.D., is a Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist and the Director of the thalassemia program at the University of California, San Francisco, Benioff Children's Hospital in Oakland, CA. Dr. Lal’s research areas of interest are in the development of intensive chelation regimens for transfusional iron overload, iron-induced cellular injury, the natural history of hemoglobin H disease and micronutrient inadequacy in hemoglobinopathies. He graduated from Government Medical College in Punjab, India, completed training at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, India, a residency in pediatrics at the University of Illinois, Chicago, as well as a fellowship in pediatric hematology/oncology at University of California, San Francisco, Benioff Children's Hospital in Oakland, CA.
Gordon McLaren, M.D., is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. McLaren’s research interests include disorders of iron metabolism, focusing on the areas of hemochromatosis and other forms of iron overload, control of intestinal iron absorption and regulation of cellular iron-binding proteins. He graduated from medical school at Stanford University in 1970, completed an internship in internal medicine at Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown, NY, a residency at the University Hospitals of Cleveland in internal medicine and hematology, and a fellowship in hematology/oncology.
About LJPC-401
LJPC-401 is La Jolla’s novel formulation of hepcidin. Hepcidin is a naturally occurring peptide hormone that controls and regulates iron metabolism. By suppressing iron release, hepcidin prevents iron accumulation in tissues, such as the liver, heart and pancreas, where it can cause significant damage and even result in death. La Jolla is developing LJPC-401 for the treatment of conditions characterized by iron overload, such as hemochromatosis and beta thalassemia. Preclinical studies have shown that increasing hepcidin, either via synthetic hepcidin injection or genetic induction, results in reduced iron overload in organs. La Jolla expects to file an IND and commence a Phase 1 clinical trial of LJPC-401 in the second half of 2015.
About La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company
La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of innovative therapies intended to significantly improve outcomes in patients suffering from life-threatening diseases. The Company has four product candidates in development. LJPC-501 is La Jolla’s proprietary formulation of angiotensin II for the potential treatment of catecholamine-resistant hypotension and hepatorenal syndrome. GCS-100 is La Jolla’s first-in-class galectin-3 inhibitor for the potential treatment of chronic kidney disease. LJPC-1010, La Jolla’s second-generation galectin-3 inhibitor, is a more potent and purified derivative of GCS-100 that can be delivered orally for the potential treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and other diseases characterized by tissue fibrosis. LJPC-401 is La Jolla’s novel formulation of hepcidin for the potential treatment of conditions characterized by iron overload, such as hemochromatosis and beta thalassemia. For more information on La Jolla, please visit www.ljpc.com.
Forward-Looking Statement Safe Harbor
This document contains forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements relate to future events or the Company’s future results of operations. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results to be materially different from these forward-looking statements. The Company cautions readers not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they were made. Certain of these risks, uncertainties, and other factors are described in greater detail in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), all of which are available free of charge on the SEC's web site http://www.sec.gov. These risks include, but are not limited to, risks relating to: the successful future development of LJPC-401 and anticipated contributions of the LJPC-401 advisory board. Subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or to persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements set forth in the Company's reports filed with the SEC. The Company expressly disclaims any intent to update any forward-looking statements.
