Aravive, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARAV), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical
company, today announced transitions in its board of directors and
executive team, effective immediately. Fred Eshelman, Pharm.D., has
been unanimously appointed to the board of directors and named
chairman of the board. Jay Shepard, Srinivas Akkaraju, M.D., Ph.D.,
and Robert Hoffman have resigned from the board of directors. Rekha
Hemrajani has resigned as the company’s chief executive officer and
as a director. Gail McIntyre, Ph.D., the company’s chief scientific
officer, has been named chief executive officer of Aravive and
appointed to the board of directors.
Prior to Dr. Eshelman joining the board of directors, Eshelman
Venture, LLC, an entity wholly-owned by Dr. Eshelman, purchased
from Aravive $5.0 million of the company’s common stock. Additional
details will be filed today with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
“I am extremely pleased to be working with the Aravive team and
am encouraged by the clinical progress and results to date of the
company’s lead product candidate, AVB-500,” said Dr. Eshelman. “I’m
excited to have made a significant investment in Aravive, aligning
my interests with those of the company’s shareholders.”
Dr. Eshelman added, “On behalf of the board, I would like to
thank Jay, Srinivas, Robert and Rekha for their service and many
contributions to the company. We wish them all the best going
forward.”
Ray Tabibiazar, M.D., co-founder of Aravive and a member of the
board of directors added, “Gail has been intimately involved with
all aspects of the company’s operation over the past four years
and, with her at the helm, Aravive is poised to execute on its
business plan. In addition, we’re thrilled to welcome Fred to our
board. As a successful entrepreneur, drug developer, and investor,
he is a true role model in our industry. The transitions we
announced today reflect the natural evolution of the company and
the board of directors following the completion of our 50:50
reverse merger nearly 18 months ago. They were not precipitated by
any disagreement between any of the departing directors and the
company. Rather, they ensure that our management team and board
have the optimal mix of skills, experience and expertise, and are
positioned to work efficiently and effectively, to deliver on the
company’s strategic vision.”
About Dr. Eshelman
Dr. Eshelman is a highly-regarded, successful entrepreneur, with
more than 40 years of executive, strategic, operational and
financial leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical and
healthcare industries. He is the founder of Eshelman Venture, an
investment company focused primarily on healthcare. Most recently,
Dr. Eshelman served as chairman of the board of The Medicines
Company, where he helped shape and execute the company’s strategy
and business initiatives. The Medicines Company was acquired by
Novartis in January 2020 for approximately $9.7 billion.
Previously, Dr. Eshelman was the founding chairman and largest
shareholder of Furiex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which was
acquired by Forest Labs/Actavis. Prior to Furiex, Dr. Eshelman was
the founder, chief executive officer and executive chairman of
Pharmaceutical Product Development, Inc., which was acquired
by private equity interests. His career has also included positions
as senior vice president (development) and a board member of the
former Glaxo, Inc., as well as various management positions with
Beecham Laboratories and Boehringer Mannheim Pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Eshelman currently serves on the boards of directors of
Eyenovia, Inc., G1 Therapeutics, Inc. and Amplitude Healthcare
Acquisition Corporation.
Dr. Eshelman received his Doctor of Pharmacy from the
University of Cincinnati, and completed a residency at Cincinnati
General Hospital. He received a Bachelor of Science in
pharmacy from UNC-Chapel Hill and is also a graduate of the
Owner/President Management program at Harvard Business School.
About Dr. McIntyre
Dr. McIntyre is a seasoned biopharma executive with more than 25
years of experience having brought multiple drugs to market. Dr.
McIntyre’s drug development expertise spans multiple disciplines
and therapeutic areas, as well as strategic business development,
licensing and M&A. Dr. McIntyre has served in various senior
management and leadership positions throughout her career and has
been with Aravive since 2016.
Conference Call
The Aravive management team will host a conference call and
webcast today at 9:00 AM, ET, to discuss this corporate update. To
access the call, please dial (844) 281-9845 (domestic) or (314)
888-4254 (international) and provide passcode 1067533. A live
webcast of the call will be available on the Investors section of
the Aravive website at www.ir.aravive.com. The archived webcast
will be available on Aravive’s website after the conference
call.
About Aravive
Aravive, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARAV) is a clinical-stage
biopharmaceutical company developing treatments designed to halt
the progression of life-threatening diseases, including cancer and
fibrosis. Aravive’s lead product candidate, AVB-500, is an
ultra-high affinity decoy protein that targets the GAS6-AXL
signaling pathway. By capturing serum GAS6, AVB-500 starves the AXL
pathway of its signal, potentially halting the biological
programming that promotes disease progression. AXL receptor
signaling plays an important role in multiple types of malignancies
by promoting metastasis, cancer cell survival, resistance to
treatments, and immune suppression. The GAS6-AXL signaling pathway
also plays a significant role in fibrogenesis. Aravive is
evaluating AVB-500 in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, clear cell
renal cell carcinoma and kidney fibrosis and intends to expand
development into additional oncology and fibrotic indications.
Aravive is based in Houston, Texas and received a Product
Development Award from the Cancer Prevention & Research
Institute of Texas (CPRIT) in 2016. For more information, please
visit www.aravive.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This communication contains forward-looking statements
(including within the meaning of Section 21E of the United States
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and Section 27A of the
United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended), express or
implied, such as the new director and management changes having the
optimal mix of skills, experience and expertise, and being
positioned to work efficiently and effectively, to deliver on the
Company’s strategic vision, the Company being poised to execute on
its business plan and the expansion of the development of AVB-500
into additional oncology and fibrotic indications. Forward-looking
statements are based on current beliefs and assumptions, are not
guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially
from those contained in any forward-looking statement as a result
of various factors, including, but not limited to, risks and
uncertainties related to: the contribution to be derived from the
new director, the ability of the new director and management team
to deliver on the Company’s strategic vision and execute on its
business plan, the Company’s ability to expand development into
additional oncology and fibrotic indications, the Company’s
dependence upon AVB-500, AVB-500’s ability to have favorable
results in clinical trials, the clinical trials of AVB-500 having
results that are as favorable as those of preclinical and clinical
studies, the ability to receive regulatory approval, potential
delays in the Company's clinical trials due to regulatory
requirements or difficulty identifying qualified investigators or
enrolling patients especially in light of the COVID-19 outbreak;
the risk that AVB-500 may cause serious side effects or have
properties that delay or prevent regulatory approval or limit its
commercial potential; the risk that the Company may encounter
difficulties in manufacturing AVB-500; if AVB-500 is approved,
risks associated with its market acceptance, including pricing and
reimbursement; potential difficulties enforcing the Company's
intellectual property rights; the Company's reliance on its
licensor of intellectual property and financing needs. The
foregoing review of important factors that could cause actual
events to differ from expectations should not be construed as
exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with statements that
are included herein and elsewhere, including the risk factors
included in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal
year ended December 31, 2019, recent Current Reports on Form 8-K
and subsequent filings with the SEC. Except as required by
applicable law, the Company undertakes no obligation to revise or
update any forward-looking statement, or to make any other
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise.
Contacts for Aravive:
Investors:Christina TartagliaStern IR,
Inc.christina@sternir.com
Media:Heidi Chokeir, Ph.D.Canale
Communicationsheidi@canalecomm.com619-203-5391
Source: Aravive
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