Inhaled drug developer Savara has announced the departures of its co-founders, CEO Rob Neville and President and Chief Business Officer Taneli Jouhikainen, who have resigned “to pursue other opportunities,” according to the company. Matthew Pauls, who has been a member of the company’s board of directors since Mast’s 2017 merger with Savara, will step in as interim CEO and Chairman.
Pauls resigned as CEO of Strongbridge Biopharma in November 2019, when the company said that he and the board had “mutually agreed that now is the right time to transition leadership” of Strongbridge. Pauls was Chairman of the Board of Mast Therapeutics prior to the merger, and he serves on the board of Zyla Life Sciences. His previous roles included Chief Commercial Officer at Insmed and positions at Shire, BMS, and Johnson & Johnson.
Savara recently announced that it was discontinuing development of Molgradex inhaled recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) for the treatment of nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) lung infection. Development of Molgradex for the treatment of autoimmune pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (aPAP) is continuing despite the failure of the Phase 3 IMPALA study of Molgradex for PAP to meet its primary endpoint.
Earlier this year, Savara acquired global development and commercialization rights to Apulmiq (Linhaliq) inhaled liposomal ciprofloxacin from Grifols, which had acquired the rights in February 2020 after Aradigm’s bankruptcy. Savara’s pipeline also includes the AeroVanc vancomycin DPI for the treatment of MRSA lung infections in cystic fibrosis patients, which is in Phase 3 development.
Pauls commented, “On behalf of the Board of Directors and the entire company, I want to thank the company’s founders, Rob and Taneli, for their contributions to Savara and wish them well in their future endeavors. Importantly, moving forward, Savara’s highest priority is Molgradex and the initiation of the pivotal Phase 3 trial, IMPALA 2, in the first quarter of 2021. With Molgradex we have the potential opportunity to bring the first approved therapy for autoimmune pulmonary alveolar proteinosis to market. We also look forward to disclosing top line results from the Phase 3 AeroVanc AVAIL study early next year and getting regulatory feedback on the Apulmiq clinical development program.”
Read the Savara press release.
