Tiziana Life Sciences Ltd said it has appointed Dr Matthew Davis as its chief medical officer and acting chief scientific officer, effective immediately. The company noted that Dr Davis will report to Gabriele Cerrone, executive chairman and interim chief executive officer of Tiziana.
"Dr Davis is a proven leader with 25 years in the pharmaceutical industry," Cerrone said in a statement. "We believe Dr Davis' experience with drug approvals is a key asset as the Company focuses more of its resources from discovery to proof-of-concept clinical trials. His broad therapeutic and FDA expertise, along with his in-depth experience with biologics will be invaluable as we pursue our mission to bring breakthrough therapies with the aim of treating Secondary-Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (SPMS), Crohn's Disease and KRAS+ NSCLC and optimizing health outcomes."
"I am thrilled to join the Tiziana team, and for the opportunity to help advance Foralumab, TZLS-501 and Milciclib. I am energized to work with the passionate and dedicated R&D team and to meet the prestigious Scientific Advisors who are helping to guide the company," Dr Davis added.
READ: Tiziana Life Sciences reports positive results from second patient in multiple sclerosis study of foralumab
The company noted that Dr Davis has extensive experience in new drug application (NDA) and biologic license application (BLA), US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approvals and device clearances. Notable approved brands that he has worked on include Lidoderm, Sculptra, Colcrys and most recently QWO.
Dr Davis previously served as chief scientific officer and chief medical officer at Endo Pharmaceuticals where he restructured the R&D department and collaborated to obtain BLA approval for QWO. Additionally, Dr Davis was chief medical officer for Lupin Inc and URL Pharma Inc where he spearheaded three NDA approvals and was the inventor on all 17 Orange Book listed patents for Colcrys. He also was on the executive team that sold URL Pharma to Takeda Pharmaceutical Company for approximately $800 million combined with over $1 billion in performance-based contingent earn-out payments.
Dr Davis matriculated to the University of Pennsylvania as an undergraduate. He received his Pharmacy Degree from Temple University and his Medical Degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania. He undertook his surgical training at Brown University and his Urology training at Washington Hospital Center.
CEO voluntarily resigns
In a brief separate statement late on Friday, July 15, 2022, Tiziana Life Sciences said its board of directors had accepted the voluntary resignation of Dr Kunwar Shailubhai as its chief executive officer, chief scientific officer and board director, effective as of August 1, 2022.
The company said Dr Shailubhai resigned for personal reasons, and his resignation is not related to any disagreement with the company on any matter relating to the company's operations, policies or practices. It added its board has appointed its executive chairman Ceronne as interim chief executive officer to lead the company through this period of transition and will begin a search for a permanent chief executive officer and chief scientific officer immediately.
"On behalf of the Board, I want to thank Kunwar for his many years of exceptional service to Tiziana and his commitment to our vision in providing locally acting antibody therapies to patients with unmet needs," Cerrone said. "We wish Kunwar well in his future endeavors. We continue to advance our foralumab clinical development programs as planned, and will provide a progress update in due course."
Tiziana Life Sciences is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing breakthrough therapies using transformational drug delivery technologies to enable alternative routes of immunotherapy.
The company's innovative nasal, oral and inhalation approaches in development have the potential to provide an improvement in efficacy as well as safety and tolerability compared to intravenous (IV) delivery. Tiziana's two lead candidates, intranasal foralumab, the only fully human anti-CD3 mAb, and milciclib, a pan-CDK inhibitor, have both demonstrated a favorable safety profile and clinical response in patients in studies to date.
Tiziana's technology for alternative routes of immunotherapy has been patented with several applications pending and is expected to allow for broad pipeline applications.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com