Exicure Announces Appointment of Dr. Douglas E. Feltner as Chief Medical Officer
May 19 2020 - 7:00AM
Business Wire
Exicure, Inc. (NASDAQ:XCUR), the pioneer in gene regulatory and
immunotherapeutic drugs utilizing spherical nucleic acid (SNA™)
constructs, announced today that it has appointed Douglas E.
Feltner, M.D. as its Chief Medical Officer effective May 18th,
2020. Dr. Feltner joins Exicure from AveXis (now part of Novartis)
where he was the Vice President of Clinical Development, focusing
on developing gene therapies for neurodegenerative and
neurodevelopmental disorders, including the recent approval of
Zolgensma™ for patients with Spinal Muscular Atrophy.
“Doug brings deep experience in all phases of drug development,
starting with translational and early strategic decision making all
the way to phase 3 registration trials. Exicure is committed to
building a growing pipeline of neurological drug candidates and we
are very pleased to have Doug bring his expertise and experience to
this important initiative,” stated Dr. David Giljohann, CEO of
Exicure.
Dr. Feltner is a physician-scientist, with over 20 years of
experience in clinical drug development and in translational
medicine, primarily focused on neurology, psychiatry and
neuroscience. Prior to AveXis, Dr. Feltner, served as Vice
President, Neuroscience Development, for AbbVie, Inc. and Vice
President, Global Head of Translational Medicine for Pfizer, Inc.
Dr. Feltner earned his M.D., with distinction in research, from the
University of Michigan Medical School, did his residency in
psychiatry at George Washington University, and was a postdoctoral
fellow in the Lab of Mammalian Genes and Development at The
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Dr. Feltner commented, “I have watched with great interest the
development of Exicure’s spherical nucleic acid technology. I see
many compelling opportunities for addressing unmet neurological
conditions with Exicure’s SNA platform technology and am thrilled
to join their growing team.”
About Exicure’s Neurological Programs
Exicure has conducted extensive preclinical research evaluating
the suitability of our SNA technology for genetically defined
neurological diseases, including efficacy studies in animal models,
and biodistribution in rodent and non-human primates. Our
pre-clinical work suggests that the SNA platform may be well-suited
for development of new therapeutics directed towards diseases of
the central nervous system. We are currently developing XCUR-FXN, a
SNA-based therapeutic candidate for the treatment of Friedreich’s
ataxia, or FA. FA is an autosomal recessive, neurodegenerative
disease characterized by progressively impaired muscle coordination
caused by the degeneration of neurons in the cerebellum and dorsal
root ganglia in the spinal cord. An estimated 5,000 patients in the
US and 15,000 patients worldwide are affected by FA. There are no
FDA-approved treatments for FA. Based on our pre-clinical studies,
we believe we can target FA at the genetic source and meet an
important unmet medical need for FA patients. XCUR-FXN, will be
designed and developed with guidance from and in collaboration with
the Friedreich’s Ataxia Research Alliance, or FARA, the non-profit,
charitable organization dedicated to accelerating research leading
to treatments and a cure for FA. We expect to initiate IND-enabling
studies for XCUR-FXN in late 2020.
We believe there is significant unmet medical need in rare
neurological disorders and look forward to building a pipeline of
neurological drug candidates. Exicure is focused on diseases with
genetically validated known targets known where few disease
modifying therapies exist and which are not readily addressable by
traditional therapeutic modalities. Such indications include by way
of example: Spinocerebellar ataxia, Friedreich’s ataxia, Batten
disease, Ataxia telangiectasia, Angelman syndrome, Huntington’s,
ALS.
About Exicure, Inc. Exicure, Inc. is a clinical-stage
biotechnology company developing therapeutics for neurology,
immuno-oncology, inflammatory diseases and genetic disorders based
on our proprietary Spherical Nucleic Acid, or SNA technology.
Exicure believes that its proprietary SNA architecture has distinct
chemical and biological properties that may provide advantages over
other nucleic acid therapeutics and may have therapeutic potential
to target diseases not typically addressed with other nucleic acid
therapeutics. Exicure is in preclinical development of XCUR-FXN, an
SNA–based therapeutic candidate for the treatment of Friedreich’s
ataxia (FA). Exicure's drug candidate AST-008 is currently in a
Phase 1b/2 clinical trial in patients with advanced solid tumors.
Exicure is based outside of Chicago, IL and also has an office in
Cambridge, MA. For more information, visit Exicure’s website at
www.exicuretx.com.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200519005188/en/
Media Karen Sharma MacDougall 781-235-3060
ksharma@macbiocom.com
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