GHENT, Belgium--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MRM Health - a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative microbiome-based biotherapeutics based on its proprietary and unique CORAL® platform technology - today announced that it appointed Katja Conrath, PhD, as Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Conrath brings more than 15 years of experience in drug discovery and early development in various indications, among which fibrosis and inflammation. She will oversee MRM Health’s non-clinical research and development strategies, as well as the Company’s proprietary CORAL® platform technology.
“Katja has an impressive track record in delivering successful research and development programs in various disease indications and with different therapeutic modalities. She further brings experience in working with pharma alliance partners and building networks of KOLs.” said Sam Possemiers, Chief Executive Officer of MRM Health. “She joins MRM Health at an exciting moment as we are completing clinical evaluation in our Phase 2a study in Ulcerative Colitis. Katja will be instrumental in further driving and expanding our scientific innovation and preclinical drug development strategy and portfolio. I welcome her to the executive team and look forward to her contributions in our ambitious growth plans and our mission to deliver safe and effective therapeutics to patients across different diseases.”
Leveraging on its proprietary CORAL® platform for accelerated development and scalable, cost-effective manufacturing of live microbial consortia therapeutics, MRM Health is currently active across inflammatory, CNS and metabolic diseases. Its most advanced program MH002 is in clinical development, with a phase 2a trial in mild-to-moderate Ulcerative Colitis (UC) completing clinical evaluation in all 45 target patients and a trial in acute Pouchitis ongoing. Topline data from the UC trial are expected early Q3 2023.
“MRM Health’s strategy of developing rationally-designed and disease-mechanism focused therapeutics based on optimized combinations of live commensal gut bacteria, has the potential to become a novel standard within the microbiome field and a novel approach to tackle a range of diseases with high unmet need,” Commented Katja Conrath, PhD. “With a powerful technology platform and a strong science focus, I am excited to further build MRM Health’s therapeutic pipeline and guide the Company’s R&D ambitions to further value inflection points.”
Prior to joining MRM Health, Dr. Conrath was VP Research at Galapagos, where she was responsible for translating the company’s strategy into actual target discovery and drug discovery approaches in inflammation and fibrosis areas and for managing the research portfolio. Throughout her career she worked with different therapeutic modalities such as small molecules, antibodies and oligonucleotides. Dr. Conrath holds a PhD in applied biological sciences from the University of Brussels, Belgium.
About MRM Health
MRM Health NV, Ghent, Belgium, is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative, microbiome-based biotherapeutics for inflammatory, CNS and metabolic diseases. It’s disruptive CORAL® technology platform allows to design disease-focused therapeutics, based on combinations of 5 to 10 live gut bacteria, and manufacture these in a single standardized and scalable process. The Company’s most advanced program MH002, a defined 6-strain live biotherapeutic, is in Phase 2 development, with an Ulcerative Colitis trial completing clinical evaluation and a trial in the rare disease Pouchitis ongoing. Additional pipeline development includes a preclinical program in Parkinson’s disease, preclinical programs in Type 2 Diabetes and in NAFLD (both partnered with IFF) and a discovery program in autoimmune disease, including Spondyloarthritis.
About CORAL®
MRM Health’s CORAL® platform utilizes a bioinformatics-guided in-human discovery engine, combined with a breakthrough in optimization and manufacturing of consortia as single drug substance. The proprietary consortia optimization technology allows for the development of next-generation consortia therapeutics with faster onset-of-action and increased potency and robustness. The breakthrough scalable, robust, and standardized cGMP-compliant consortia manufacturing technology allows to manufacture complete therapeutic consortia as a single drug substance in a single manufacturing process which strongly surpasses existing approaches in speed, reduced complexity and increased robustness.
