SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. & CALGARY, Alberta--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Parvus Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of disease-specific immunoregulatory medicines to treat autoimmune diseases without impairing normal immunity, today announced the appointment of Hugh Young Rienhoff, Jr., M.D., as Chairman of the Board, Charles A. Johnson, M.D., to the Board of Directors, and Alain Delcayre, Ph.D., as Senior Vice President of Research.
“We are delighted to announce the addition of Hugh, Charlie, and Alain to the Parvus team as we continue to expand and build out our R&D organization and Board of Directors following the close of our second license and collaboration agreement,” said Curtis Ruegg, Ph.D., President & CEO of Parvus. "Hugh’s leadership and experience as a successful entrepreneur and venture capitalist is an ideal fit with Parvus as we set and implement the Company’s direction and strategy. Together with Charlie’s strong background in biopharma in clinical development and overall product development strategies, these two board additions enrich Parvus with valuable guidance as we invest more resources toward the selection of additional Navacim drug candidates for development. With the addition of Alain as SVP of Research, we are further positioned to successfully execute on our expanding R&D plan.”
Dr. Rienhoff is a San Francisco Bay area physician and entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Imago Biosciences, his fourth start-up. Prior to Imago, he was the founder and CEO of FerroKin BioSciences, which was acquired by Shire Plc in 2012. Earlier in his career, Dr. Rienhoff was involved in venture capital as a Director at Abingworth Management in London and a partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA). Throughout his career, Dr. Rienhoff has held numerous board positions in life science companies, many of which lead to successful exits. He obtained his B.A. from Williams College, studied mathematics at Harvard University and earned an M.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He trained in internal medicine as a member of the Osler Medical House staff at the Johns Hopkins Hospital where he was later a fellow in hematology and clinical genetics. Dr. Rienhoff continued his training at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington as a Howard Hughes Investigator.
“I am delighted to assume the position of Chairman at Parvus as the company transitions to the clinical stage with products of such great promise,” said Dr. Rienhoff.
Dr. Johnson is an accomplished physician and pharmaceutical executive with more than 40 years of experience in clinical practice and biopharmaceutical clinical development. Most recently, he was the Chief Medical Officer of Neurotech, where he was responsible for all clinical programs using encapsulated cell technology to treat retinal diseases. Before Neurotech, he was the Vice President of Global Medical Affairs at Vertex and held leadership positions at Inspire Pharmaceuticals and APT Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Johnson began his biotechnology career at Genentech where he was the Vice President and Head of the Immunology and Tissue Repair clinical group. At Genentech, he was the Chair of the Development Review Committee where he led the team responsible for reviewing and assessing pipeline candidates. Dr. Johnson received his M.D. from the University of Cape Town in South Africa, attained Board Certification in Pediatrics at the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital, and completed his Pediatric Pulmonology Fellowship at Washington University.
Dr. Delcayre is a seasoned biotechnology professional with considerable experience translating early stage research into clinical drug candidates, primarily in the field of nanoparticle-based immunotherapy. He has consulted on and co-founded several start-ups/entities focused on the commercialization of exosome-based therapeutics. Notably, while VP of Research and Development at Anosys, Dr. Delcayre and his team co-discovered Exosome Display, a technique to manipulate exosome protein content that is now broadly implemented by many companies in exosome-based targeted drug delivery. Dr. Delcayre received his Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (PARIS VI) and completed postdoctoral studies at the California Institute of Biological Research and Stratagene (La Jolla, CA).
About Parvus Therapeutics Inc.
Parvus Therapeutics Inc. is a privately-held biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development and commercialization of Navacim therapeutics targeting autoimmune and other inflammatory diseases. Navacims were discovered by Pere Santamaria, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer and Founder of Parvus, Julia McFarlane/Diabetes Canada Professor of the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary.