BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Edgewise Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing small molecule therapies for musculoskeletal diseases, today announced the appointment of Behrad Derakhshan, Ph.D., to the newly created position of Chief Business Officer. Dr. Derakhshan brings over 10 years of experience from innovative rare/ultra-rare disease companies with expertise in executing strong business partnerships, capital formation and corporate and business development strategy. This comes at an important time as Edgewise advances EDG-5506, the company’s lead product candidate, in clinical development for Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy (DMD and BMD).
“Behrad’s success executing strong corporate and business development strategies in the rare/ultra-rare disease space is a welcome addition to our team,” said Kevin Koch, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, Edgewise Therapeutics. “His unique business insights will be invaluable as we continue to build our pipeline and advance our muscular dystrophy, metabolic and cardiac programs through development.”
“Edgewise has extraordinary opportunities ahead of it with its breakthrough science, and I am delighted to be joining the team at such an exciting time as the company advances EDG-5506, a novel, first-in-class drug candidate for patients with muscular dystrophies, into the clinic. I believe EDG-5506 offers the potential to significantly change the treatment paradigm for these patients,” said Dr. Derakhshan. “I look forward to working closely with Kevin and the leadership team to help the company realize the potential of our drug pipeline and delivering a new generation of transformative medicines to patients.”
Dr. Derakhshan joins Edgewise from VectivBio, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing novel therapeutics across a variety of rare conditions, where he served as Chief Business Officer and was responsible for the company’s capital formation and business development strategy. Previously, Dr. Derakhshan served as the Head of Business Development at Therachon, a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of therapeutics for rare pediatric conditions, until its acquisition by Pfizer Inc. in 2019. Prior to Therachon, he was a Director at Alexion Pharmaceuticals responsible for Business Development and Strategic Evaluation after initially leading the New Products Global Commercial Insights and Analytics team. Earlier in his career, Dr. Derakhshan worked in management consulting, first as a Senior Consultant at Easton Associates and then as an Associate Director at Navigant Consulting. During that time, he advised a number of global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies across a range of strategic projects. Dr. Derakhshan conducted his postdoctoral training at the Yale School of Medicine and received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from a joint program between Weill Cornell Medicine, New York and the University of Surrey, UK. He received a First-Class Honors BSc. with distinction in Biochemistry from the University of Surrey.
About Muscular Dystrophy
Muscular dystrophies are a group of genetic disorders associated with defects in the critical muscle-associated structural protein dystrophin or the sarcomere complex and are characterized by progressive muscle degeneration and weakness. In individuals with neuromuscular conditions such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy, muscle contractions lead to continued rounds of muscle breakdown that the body struggles to repair. Eventually, as patients age, fibrosis and fatty tissue accumulate in the muscle portending a steep decline in physical function that ends with mortality. There remains an unmet need for treatments that reduce muscle breakdown in patients with neuromuscular conditions. Arresting this amplified muscle response will have a dramatic effect on disease progression.
About Edgewise Therapeutics
Edgewise Therapeutics, founded in 2017 by Alan Russell, Ph.D., Peter Thompson, M.D. (Orbimed Advisors) and Badreddin Edris, Ph.D. (Springworks Inc.), is pioneering the development of first-in-class medicines for the treatment of high morbidity musculoskeletal diseases. Skeletal muscle is the largest organ system in the human body, regulating both force production to enable muscle contraction, locomotion, and postural maintenance and the metabolism of glucose, fatty and amino acids. By modulating these processes in skeletal muscle, we create therapeutic agents that will reduce muscle damage, normalize muscle function, decrease mortality and profoundly benefit our patient’s quality of life. To learn more, go to: www.edgewisetx.com.