CHAPEL HILL, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Areteia Therapeutics, Inc. (“Areteia”) today announced the appointment of Daniel Becker to the Areteia Board of Directors, effective immediately. Dr. Becker will serve as a member of the audit committee of the board.
“I am excited that Dan has been appointed to our board,” said Jorge Bartolome, President and Chief Executive Officer of Areteia. “He is an incredibly accomplished executive whose depth of biotech experience, proven leadership and scientific expertise will be invaluable to me and the Board of Directors as we focus on delivering on the Company’s strategy and further advancing the Phase III program for dexpramipexole, the first potential oral drug for eosinophilic asthma.”
Commenting on his appointment, Dr. Becker said, “I am thrilled to serve as a director and look forward to continuing to work with Jorge and the team. This is a compelling opportunity to address a high unmet need for severe asthmatics by bringing a new oral medicine to market and offer patients and health systems an alternative to injectable biologics.”
Dr. Becker is a managing director at Access Biotechnology. Prior to joining Access in 2019, he was a Principal at New Leaf Venture Partners, where he played a key role in multiple private and public biopharma investments, and a Principal in the Health Care practice at the Boston Consulting Group, where he led projects across the health care sector with an emphasis on biopharma R&D.
Dr. Becker trained clinically in internal medicine and nephrology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital and was a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School. He obtained both his M.D. and Ph.D. (Cellular and Molecular Biology) degrees from the University of Michigan and received his B.S. in Physiology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
About Access Biotechnology
Access Biotechnology is the life science investment arm of Access Industries, a privately held US-based holding company with global long-term holdings. Access Biotechnology invests in transformative therapies for conditions with high unmet needs and that have the potential to meaningfully impact human health. It has a broad scope, flexible mandate, and long-term orientation. For more information, please visit: https://www.accessindustries.com/biotechnology/
About Areteia Therapeutics
Areteia Therapeutics, Inc. (areteiatx.com) is a clinical stage biotechnology company whose purpose is to develop and deliver novel Inflammation and Immunology therapies that put respiratory patients in better control of their disease and back in control of their lives. Our initial focus is developing the first potential oral drug for severe eosinophilic asthma.
Areteia’s lead drug candidate is dexpramipexole, and if approved, will be a first-in-class oral eosinophil maturation inhibitor that targets eosinophilic inflammation by lowering blood and tissue eosinophils.
Areteia was created by Population Health Partners and Knopp Biosciences. A syndicate of leading life sciences and strategic investors led by Bain Capital Life Sciences with participation from Access Biotechnology, GV, ARCH Venture Partners, Saturn Partners, Sanofi, Maverick Capital, and Population Health Partners, committed to invest up to $350 million in Series A financing to establish Areteia and advance dexpramipexole through Phase III clinical trials, secure commercial supply, and pursue potential next-generation medicines. $75MM in expanded financing has now been committed by Viking Global Investors, Marshall Wace and the original syndicate. As a result, the Series A total financing now commits up to $425MM.
Areteia has initiated late-stage development of dexpramipexole in eosinophilic asthma, including three Phase III clinical trials in partnership with Population Health Partners’ development unit, Validae Health.
About Dexpramipexole
Dexpramipexole is an oral small molecule eosinophil lowering drug currently in Phase III development for eosinophilic asthma. Dexpramipexole inhibits the maturation of eosinophils in the bone marrow, based on evidence from cell cultures and human biopsies, thereby lowering peripheral blood eosinophil levels. Most recently in a Phase II study in patients with moderate-to-severe eosinophilic asthma, treatment with dexpramipexole resulted in a significant, dose-dependent reduction in blood absolute eosinophil count at all doses tested compared to placebo. Dexpramipexole was well tolerated in the trial, with adverse events balanced across treatment and placebo groups, no serious adverse events, and no adverse events leading to discontinuation.
About Eosinophilic Asthma
Asthma disrupts the lives of more than a quarter of a billion people worldwide. More than half of asthma patients have eosinophilic asthma, which is driven by an oversupply of eosinophils, a type of white blood cell, in blood and tissue. By inhibiting the maturation of eosinophils, oral dexpramipexole acts to lower eosinophils. Similarly, currently approved injectable anti-IL-5/5R biologic therapies provide clinical benefit through eosinophil lowering. The asthma biologic market is valued today at around $8 billion, with IL-5 biologic therapies approaching $4 billion of that figure. If approved as a first-to-market oral, dexpramipexole could provide a compelling alternative to injectable biologics, and could potentially expand the use of targeted therapy to address Type 2 eosinophilic inflammation in asthma.
