Allena Pharmaceuticals Announces Appointment of David J. Clark, M.D., M.R.C.P. as Chief Medical Officer
December 01 2020 - 8:00AM
Allena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALNA), a late-stage,
biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing and
commercializing first-in-class, oral enzyme therapeutics to treat
patients with rare and severe metabolic and kidney disorders, today
announced the appointment of David J. Clark, M.D., M.R.C.P, as
Chief Medical Officer, effective immediately. Dr. Clark succeeds
Annamaria Kausz, M.D., who will transition to supporting the
company in an advisory capacity.
“We are delighted to welcome David to Allena,” said Louis
Brenner, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Allena
Pharmaceuticals. “Over the course of his career, David has
successfully designed and executed clinical programs across a range
of rare disease and orphan indications, demonstrating an ability to
work collaboratively with regulatory agencies across the globe. His
insights and leadership will be hugely valuable as we advance
reloxaliase and ALLN-346 through later-stages of development and
continue to explore the promise of our proprietary oral enzyme
platform for patients living with rare and severe metabolic and
kidney diseases. We are grateful to Annamaria for her many
contributions to Allena and wish her success in her future
endeavors.”
Dr. Clark brings more than 20 years of clinical experience to
Allena, with experience at biopharmaceutical companies based in the
United States and Europe. Most recently, he served as Chief Medical
Officer of Aldeyra Therapeutics from 2016 to 2020, where he led the
clinical development and regulatory functions for a portfolio of
Phase 3 and Phase 2 programs across a range of immune-mediated
ocular and systemic diseases. Before joining Aldeyra, Dr. Clark
served as Chief Medical Officer of Wilson Therapeutics, where he
led the company’s Phase 2 program for Wilson Disease and the
clinical development planning for its Phase 3 program with the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines
Association. Before that, he held senior medical positions at
TransTech Pharma and NormOxys, as well as clinical development
roles at Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and SmithKline Beecham. He holds
his M.D. from the University of Edinburgh Medical School in
Scotland and conducted a research fellowship in respiratory
medicine at the University of Dundee.
“I am passionate about working with great teams to deliver new
medicines that can meaningfully impact the lives of patients,” said
Dr. Clark. “The data generated for reloxaliase and ALLN-346 are
highly encouraging and suggest that both products have the
potential to address major unmet needs among people living with
enteric hyperoxaluria and hyperuricemia and advanced chronic kidney
disease, respectively. Moreover, these results clearly demonstrate
the power of Allena’s proprietary technology to fuel a pipeline of
oral, non-absorbed enzymes that can be delivered with the potential
for significant clinical benefit. I look forward to working closely
with the team to continue advancing reloxaliase and ALLN-346 toward
market, while also exploring new opportunities to apply our
platform more broadly.”
About Allena PharmaceuticalsAllena
Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a late-stage biopharmaceutical
company dedicated to developing and commercializing first-in-class,
oral enzyme therapeutics to treat patients with rare and severe
metabolic and kidney disorders. Allena’s lead product candidate,
reloxaliase, is currently being evaluated in a pivotal Phase 3
clinical program for the treatment of enteric hyperoxaluria, a
metabolic disorder characterized by markedly elevated urinary
oxalate levels and commonly associated with kidney stones, chronic
kidney disease and other serious kidney disorders. Allena is also
developing ALLN-346 for the treatment of hyperuricemia in the
setting of gout and advanced chronic kidney disease, with Phase 1b
multiple-ascending dose and Phase 2 proof-of-concept studies
planned for 2021.
Forward-Looking StatementsThis release contains
“forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 including, without
limitation, statements regarding the appointment of Dr. Clark;
Allena’s pipeline of oral enzyme therapeutic candidates and
Allena’s plans to build a commercial organization.
Any forward-looking statements in this press release are
based on management’s current expectations of future events and are
subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause
actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set
forth in or implied by such forward-looking statements. These
risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: market and
other conditions, the timing for completion of Allena’s
clinical trials of its product candidates, risks associated
with obtaining, maintaining and protecting intellectual property;
risks associated with Allena’s ability to enforce its patents
against infringers and defend its patent portfolio against
challenges from third parties; the risk of competition from other
companies developing products for similar uses; risk associated
with Allena’s financial condition and its need to obtain additional
funding to support its business activities, including the future
clinical development of reloxaliase and its ability to continue as
a going concern; risks associated with Allena’s dependence on third
parties; and risks related to the COVID-19 coronavirus. For a
discussion of other risks and uncertainties, and other important
factors, any of which could cause Allena’s actual results to differ
from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see
the section entitled “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of Part I of
Allena’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the
quarter ended September 30, 2020, as well as discussions of
potential risks, uncertainties and other important factors in
Allena’s subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. All information in this press release is as of the date
of the release, and Allena undertakes no duty to update this
information unless required by law.
Investor ContactHannah DeresiewiczStern
Investor Relations,
Inc.212-362-1200hannah.deresiewicz@sternir.com
Media ContactAdam DaleyBerry & Company
Public Relations 212-253-8881adaley@berrypr.com
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