CUPERTINO, Calif., Nov. 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- DURECT Corporation
(Nasdaq: DRRX), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the
development of treatments for acute organ injury and chronic liver
diseases, today announced it has appointed Norman Sussman, M.D. as its Chief Medical
Officer, effective immediately. In this new role, Dr. Sussman will
oversee the clinical development of DURECT's pipeline including
multiple indications for its lead investigational drug candidate
DUR-928.
"We are excited to welcome Dr. Sussman as our Chief Medical
Officer as we continue to advance DUR-928 through clinical
development for the treatment of alcoholic hepatitis (AH),
nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and other indications," stated
James E. Brown, D.V.M., President
and Chief Executive Officer of DURECT. "Dr. Sussman is a renowned
hepatologist with a proven track record in clinical research of
liver diseases. We believe he will provide critical support in
advancing our clinical programs and we look forward to his
contributions."
Dr. Sussman commented, "I am delighted to be joining DURECT at
this exciting time for the company as it prepares to initiate
dosing in a potentially pivotal Phase 2b trial in AH and continues to advance clinical
programs for other indications involving acute organ injury and
chronic liver diseases. DUR-928 is an epigenetic regulator with a
unique mechanism of action that has potential to transform the
treatment of these diseases. I look forward to leveraging my
clinical experience as I join a talented and dedicated team at
DURECT working to bring desperately needed, potentially life-saving
therapies to patients with no good therapeutic options."
Dr. Sussman has extensive clinical experience and expertise in
the liver disease field and brings over 30 years of clinical
research and development experience in academia and industry. He
joins DURECT from Baylor College of
Medicine, where he was an Associate Professor of Medicine
and Surgery. Dr. Sussman has been a faculty member of Baylor College of Medicine intermittently since
1985. During this time, he has served as a Principal Investigator
for research focused on the assessment and management of acute
liver failure and artificial liver support. Dr. Sussman has also
had leadership experience in industry as the founder and Vice
President of both Amphioxus Cell Technologies from 1995 to 2003 and
Hepatix, Inc from 1993 to 1995. Most recently, he has also served
in senior leadership roles as a member of the Baylor Faculty Senate
and as Director of the telehealth program, Project
ECHO®, at Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center.
Dr. Sussman received his MBBCh from the University of the
Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South
Africa. He then completed his residency at St. Louis University Hospital and his post-doctoral
fellowship at Washington University. He
is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology, and
Transplant Hepatology. Dr. Sussman is also a Fellow of the American
Association of the Study of Liver Disease, which is a designation
that recognizes his superior level of professional achievement in
the field of hepatology.
About DURECT Corporation
DURECT is a biopharmaceutical company committed to transforming
the treatment of acute organ injury and chronic liver diseases by
advancing novel and potentially lifesaving therapies based on its
endogenous epigenetic regulator program. DURECT's lead candidate,
DUR-928 is an endogenous sulfated oxysterol and an epigenetic
regulator. It represents a new class of therapeutics with a unique
mechanism of action. DUR-928 epigenetically modulates the
expression of multiple clusters of master genes that are involved
in many important cell signaling pathways through which it
stabilizes mitochondria, reduces lipotoxicity, regulates
inflammatory or stress responses, and promotes cell survival.
This drug candidate is in Phase 2 development for the treatment of
alcoholic hepatitis (AH) and the treatment of COVID-19 patients
with acute liver or kidney injury as well as Phase 1 development
for the treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). DURECT's
proprietary drug delivery technologies are designed to enable new
indications and enhanced attributes for small-molecule and biologic
drugs. One late-stage product candidate in this category is
POSIMIR® (bupivacaine sustained-release solution), an
investigational locally-acting, non-opioid analgesic intended to
provide up to three days of continuous pain relief after surgery.
For more information about DURECT, please visit
www.durect.com and follow us on Twitter
https://twitter.com/DURECTCorp.
DURECT Forward-Looking Statement
The statements in this press release regarding clinical
development plans for DUR-928, including the potential use of
DUR-928 to treat COVID-19 patients with liver or kidney injury, the
potential use of DUR-928 to treat acute organ injuries, such as AH,
and chronic liver diseases, such as NASH, the life saving potential
of DUR-928, and the potential use of POSIMIR to provide pain relief
after surgery are forward-looking statements involving risks and
uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially
from those in such forward-looking statements. Potential risks and
uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risks that the
clinical trial of DUR-928 in COVID-19 patients is delayed or
stopped because of changes to the standard of care, the
availability of alternative therapies, protocol changes or lack of
available patients, the risk that future clinical trials of DUR-928
are not started when anticipated, take longer to conduct than
anticipated, do not confirm the results from earlier clinical or
pre-clinical trials, or do not demonstrate the safety or efficacy
or the life saving potential of DUR-928 in a statistically
significant manner, the risk that the FDA will not approve POSIMIR
or approve POSIMIR with a limited label, the risk that additional
time and resources may be required for development, testing and
regulatory approval of DUR-928 or the Company's other product
candidates, potential adverse effects arising from the testing or
use of our drug candidates, our potential failure to maintain our
collaborative agreements with third parties and risks related to
our ability to obtain capital to fund operations and expenses.
Further information regarding these and other risks is included in
DURECT's Form 10-Q filed on August 4,
2020 under the heading "Risk Factors."
NOTE: POSIMIR® and SABER® are trademarks
of DURECT Corporation. Other referenced trademarks belong to
their respective owners. DUR-928 and POSIMIR are
investigational drug candidates under development and have not been
approved for commercialization by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration or other health authorities for any indication.
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SOURCE DURECT Corporation