Emmaus Life Sciences Inc (OTCQX:EMMA) said Dr. Yutaka Niihara will no longer serve as the company’s CEO as Dr. Niihara pursues business opportunities in Ube, Japan and India which were previously initiated by the company.
The company noted that Dr. Niihara was the principal inventor of its Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved sickle cell disease treatment Endari (L-glutamine oral powder).
The company’s chief operating officer Willis Lee and chief information officer George Sekulich will serve as interim co-presidents of Emmaus pending its search for a new CEO.
"Dr. Niihara's name and reputation will forever be associated with raising awareness of sickle cell disease among medical regulators and health practitioners in the U.S. and overseas, and we thank him for his dedicated service," Sekulich said in a statement.
“We intend to continue to pursue his mission of alleviating suffering among sickle cell disease patients wherever we find them.”
The interim co-presidents intend to focus Emmaus on its core business and in doing so discontinue substantially all of its activities unrelated to Endari sales to reduce its operating costs and increase its cash flow from operations.
"As interim co-presidents, George and I and the rest of the Emmaus team intend to focus on our core business of growing Endari sales in the U.S. and in the Middle East North Africa region while evaluating possible reformulations of Endari to compete against generic versions that we expect to see beginning in 2024," Lee said.
Emmaus is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company and leader in the treatment of sickle cell disease.
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