NEW YORK and BASEL,
Switzerland, June 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Aruvant Sciences
Inc. (Aruvant), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused
on developing and commercializing transformative therapies for the
treatment of severe blood disorders, today announced the
appointment of V. "Palani" Palaniappan, Ph.D. as chief technology
officer (CTO) effective immediately. In this role, Dr. Palaniappan
will be charged with growing Aruvant's technical and manufacturing
capabilities for current and future programs. With 25 years of
research and drug development experience, including extensive work
in chemistry, manufacturing and controls, a critical part of drug
development, Dr. Palaniappan will oversee the manufacturing of
ARU-1801, a one-time, potentially curative investigational gene
therapy for patients with sickle cell disease administered with
only reduced intensity conditioning.
"Dr. Palaniappan joins the team at an important time as we
transition from academic to commercial manufacturing for ARU-1801,
our potentially curative product candidate for individuals
with sickle cell disease," said Will Chou, M.D., chief
executive officer of Aruvant. "While we have already seen
strong clinical results from ARU-1801 manufactured with our
first-generation process, Dr. Palaniappan has the depth of
experience to successfully lead us to an optimized commercial-ready
process. His proven track record and extensive experience with
vector-based products, recombinant biologics and other novel
modalities will be valuable as we refine our approach with
ARU-1801."
Dr. Palaniappan joined Aruvant from Sarepta where he was senior
vice president, head of global technical operations and head of the
Andover and Burlington sites. He was responsible for all
stages of development from research through commercial for a
portfolio of over 30 compounds using three modalities: antisense
RNAs, gene therapy and gene editing. Prior to Sarepta, Dr.
Palaniappan worked at Takeda for over a decade, where he led teams
based in the United States and
Japan focused on CMC development
and manufacturing of novel modality products, including recombinant
biologics and cell-based and live microbe products. Prior to
joining Takeda, he worked in various development and
product manufacturing roles of increasing responsibility at
Millennium Pharmaceuticals (which was acquired by Takeda), Biogen
and Nexstar Pharmaceuticals (which was acquired by Gilead). Dr.
Palaniappan received his bachelor's and master's degree
from Annamalai University of India. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from
the Indian Institute of Technology,
Kanpur.
"Given the importance of a sound CMC strategy and robust
manufacturing, I am honored to join the Aruvant team to help guide
ARU-1801 through the next stages of development and registration,"
said Dr. Palaniappan. "To accelerate bringing this potentially
curative product to patients, we will focus on building
capabilities to support a robust, sustainable manufacturing process
and a sound regulatory strategy for ARU-1801."
About Aruvant
Aruvant Sciences, part of the Roivant
family of companies, is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company
focused on developing and commercializing transformative therapies
for the treatment of severe blood disorders, with an emphasis on
helping patients suffering from sickle cell disease and
β-thalassemia. The company's lead candidate, ARU-1801, is an
investigational lentiviral gene therapy for sickle cell disease and
transfusion-dependent β-thalassemia. ARU-1801 incorporates a
patented modified gamma-globin into autologous stem cells, with the
aim of restoring normal red blood cell function through increased
levels of fetal hemoglobin. The high potency of the modified gamma
globin enables ARU-1801 engraftment with only Reduced Intensity
Conditioning (RIC). Preliminary clinical data from an ongoing Phase
1/2 study in patients with sickle cell disease demonstrated
continuing durable reductions in disease burden and cessation of
daily opioid use for over 18 months of follow-up. For more
information, please visit www.aruvant.com.
About Roivant
Roivant aims to improve health by
rapidly delivering innovative medicines and technologies to
patients. Roivant does this by building Vants – nimble,
entrepreneurial biotech and healthcare technology companies with a
unique approach to sourcing talent, aligning incentives, and
deploying technology to drive greater efficiency in R&D and
commercialization. For more information, please
visit www.roivant.com.
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SOURCE Aruvant