Adverum Biotechnologies Announces Appointments of Dr. Rabia Gurses Ozden as Chief Medical Officer and Dr. Szilárd Kiss as a Member of the Board of Directors
June 11 2024 - 8:00AM
Adverum Biotechnologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADVM), a clinical-stage
company pioneering the use of gene therapy as a new standard of
care for highly prevalent ocular diseases, today announced the
appointments of Dr. Rabia Gurses Ozden to the Company’s executive
leadership team as chief medical officer and Dr. Szilárd Kiss to
the Company’s Board of Directors. Dr. Ozden has stepped down from
the Company’s Board of Directors, with Dr. Kiss filling the
existing Board seat.
“Adverum has made significant progress in demonstrating
Ixo-vec’s potential best-in-class profile for patients with wet
AMD. As we advance Ixo-vec through the LUNA trial and towards
pivotal studies, we will greatly benefit from the significant
expertise of both Dr. Ozden and Dr. Kiss,” stated Laurent Fischer,
M.D., president and chief executive officer of Adverum
Biotechnologies. “Dr. Ozden is a pioneer in advancing the clinical
development of novel therapies including AAV gene therapies and
innovative pivotal trial designs for ocular diseases. Her guidance
as a Board member has been invaluable, and we look forward to
working closely with her in her operating role as chief medical
officer. Dr. Kiss is a world renowned retina specialist with a
focus on ocular gene therapy, and his expertise will complement our
accomplished group of Board members. We have benefitted from Dr.
Kiss’ experience as a long-time scientific and clinical advisor to
Adverum and he will continue to bring a valued perspective in this
new role on our Board of Directors.”
“I am thrilled to join the executive and clinical teams at
Adverum and look forward to supporting the clinical development of
Ixo-vec through pivotal studies,” said Dr. Ozden. “Based on the
long-term safety and efficacy results from the OPTIC study and the
promising profile emerging from LUNA, I believe Ixo-vec has the
potential to transform the treatment paradigm by offering a
potential lifelong solution to preserve sight for patients with wet
AMD.”
“Compliance with the current standard of care for wet AMD,
frequent eye injections, is a burden for patients and caregivers,
often leading to undertreatment of this disease and vision loss. As
a practicing physician with experience across multiple ocular gene
therapy programs, I believe in the potential for gene therapy to
deliver sustained levels of anti-VEGF at the site of the disease
and dramatically reduce the number of injections for patients with
wet AMD,” said Szilárd Kiss, M.D., The Bob and Dolores Hope -
Robert M. Ellsworth, M.D. Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology
and Professor of Ophthalmology in Genetic Medicine at Weil Cornell
Medical College. “At such a pivotal time for Adverum and the
Ixo-vec program, it is a great honor to be joining the Board of
Directors and an opportunity for me to work more closely with this
esteemed management team. I look forward to helping the team
continue to advance this exciting treatment for patients.”
Rabia Gurses Ozden, M.D., has over 20 years of ophthalmology
drug development experience, including extensive experience in
AAV-based ophthalmic gene therapies. Most recently, in addition to
serving as a an Adverum Board Member, Dr. Ozden served as Chief
Medical Officer for Ocular Therapeutix, where she led the clinical
development of Ocular Therapeutix’s pipeline of programs focusing
on the front and back of the eye. Dr. Ozden’s breadth of experience
includes clinical development, clinical operations, and
pharmacovigilance in pharmaceutical and medical device development
as well as experience interacting with global regulatory agencies
and in new clinical endpoint development. Prior to joining Ocular
in 2021, Dr. Ozden served as the chief development officer at
Akouos, a precision genetic medicine company developing
first-in-class AAV gene therapies to treat hearing disorders,
acquired by Eli Lilly in 2022, where she led the clinical
development of gene therapies for sensorineural hearing loss.
Previously, she served as Chief Medical Officer of Nightstar
Therapeutics plc, a gene therapy company focused on the development
of AAV treatments for rare inherited retinal diseases that was
acquired by Biogen in 2019. Additionally, Dr. Ozden has held
leadership positions at Applied Genetic Technologies and
GlaxoSmithKline, while spending her early career in clinical
development roles. Dr. Ozden earned her M.D. from Hacettepe
University School of Medicine and completed her ophthalmology
residency at Ankara University School of Medicine and her clinical
fellowship in glaucoma at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary.
Szilárd Kiss, M.D. brings over 20 years of ocular gene therapy
experience and is a renowned medical and surgical vitreoretinal
specialist. His clinical and translational research focuses on four
broad areas: retinal imaging, ocular gene therapy, novel
therapeutic targets for ocular neovascularization, and genetic
markers for retinal diseases. Dr. Kiss has participated as a
principal investigator in over two-dozen prospective clinical
trials and laboratory investigations. He has authored over 350
scientific publications, given over 300 invited lectureships
worldwide, and serves on the Editorial Board and as a Scientific
Reviewer to a number of major journals. Dr. Kiss has won numerous
academic and scientific awards including the Heed Ophthalmic
Foundation Fellowship, the Ronald G. Michels Foundation Fellowship,
the Paul Kayser International Fellowship, and the Research to
Prevent Blindness Physician-Scientists Award. Dr. Kiss received his
undergraduate degree with honors from Columbia College, received
his medical school training at Columbia University College of
Physicians & Surgeons and completed his ophthalmology residency
and surgical vitreoretinal fellowship at Harvard Medical School and
the Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary.
About Adverum Biotechnologies
Adverum Biotechnologies (NASDAQ: ADVM) is a clinical-stage
company that aims to establish gene therapy as a new standard of
care for highly prevalent ocular diseases with the aspiration of
developing functional cures to restore vision and prevent
blindness. Leveraging the capabilities of its proprietary
intravitreal (IVT) platform, Adverum is developing durable,
single-administration therapies, designed to be delivered in
physicians’ offices, to eliminate the need for frequent ocular
injections to treat these diseases. Adverum is evaluating its novel
gene therapy candidate, ixoberogene soroparvovec (Ixo-vec, formerly
referred to as ADVM-022), as a one-time, IVT injection for patients
with neovascular or wet age-related macular degeneration.
Additionally, by overcoming the challenges associated with current
treatment paradigms for debilitating ocular diseases, Adverum
aspires to transform the standard of care, preserve vision, and
create a profound societal impact around the globe. For more
information, please visit www.adverum.com.
Forward-looking Statements
Statements contained in this press release regarding events or
results that may occur in the future are “forward-looking
statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include, but are not limited
to, statements associated with the leadership changes and
anticipated benefits of the same, the potential benefits of Ixo-vec
as a one-time IVT injection for the treatment of wet AMD, including
the potential best-in-class profile of Ixo-vec, and other
statements containing the words “anticipates,” “expects,”
“potential,” “target,” “will” and similar expressions. Actual
results could differ materially from those anticipated in such
forward-looking statements as a result of various risks and
uncertainties, including risks inherent to, without limitation:
risks associated with market conditions. Additional risks and
uncertainties facing Adverum are set forth under the caption “Risk
Factors” and elsewhere in Adverum’s Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) filings and reports, including Adverum’s most
recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC, as updated by
any subsequent reports on Form 10-Q. All forward-looking statements
contained in this press release speak only as of the date on which
they were made. Adverum undertakes no obligation to update such
statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist
after the date on which they were made, except as required by
law.
Inquiries:
Adverum Investor Relations
Email: ir@adverum.com
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