Both new appointees bring over 30 years of successful drug development experience
TORONTO and CAMBRIDGE, MA, April 3, 2018 /CNW/ - ProMIS Neurosciences, a company focused on the discovery and development of precision treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, today announced the appointment of Ernest D. Bush to the position of Head of Pharmacology/Toxicology and Russell Blacher to the position of Head of Manufacturing. These positions report to both Gene Williams, Executive Chairman and Elliot Goldstein, CEO of ProMIS Neurosciences. Dr. Bush and Mr. Blacher will support the design and execution of key late preclinical activities required for clinical trial initiation of lead therapeutic candidate, PMN310.
"We are pleased to welcome Russ Blacher and Ernie Bush to the ProMIS senior team. Both Ernie and Russ bring broad and rich experience and expertise in two critical areas of drug development: product safety/toxicology and manufacturing, respectively. Their appointments add significant value to the ProMIS team in preparing for the 2019 anticipated clinical trial initiation of PMN310, our lead program for Alzheimer's disease, and for planned regulatory submissions," said ProMIS President and CEO, Dr. Elliot Goldstein. "We are delighted to have Russ and Ernie join the team as we advance our Alzheimer's program selectively targeting toxic oligomers of amyloid beta, known to be a root cause of Alzheimer's."
About Ernest D. Bush, PhD.
Dr. Bush has 35 years of experience working in the field of biomedical R&D, driving development of innovative therapies for treatment of human diseases. He has served as a consultant in non-clinical development providing advice and insight into IND enabling programs, pre-clinical data-set analysis for due diligence and prioritization of investment decisions, and evaluation and audits of GLP bioanalytical and toxicology facilities and studies. In recent years, Dr. Bush has served as Chief Scientific Officer at Akashi Therapeutics, Inc., providing expertise to the development of drugs in Duchene Muscular Dystrophy. In previous positions, Dr. Bush worked as Senior Research Director and Head of Non-Clinical Drug Safety at Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc. where among other duties he led the assembly and review of preclinical data packages for all potential in-licensing and acquisition drug candidates and companies. He has utilized this experience to help small pharmaceutical companies and non-profit patient advocacy organizations plan and execute strategies to move them forward expeditiously and cost-effectively. Dr. Bush received his PhD. in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Washington, and an MS in Chemistry and a BA in General Sciences from the University of Oregon.
About Russell Blacher.
Mr. Blacher is Principal and founder of Biopharmaceutical Development Consulting and is an experienced research and development professional for biologic drug compounds. He has more than 30 years of experience in bridging the gap between research and development programs in a variety of corporate environments including virtual biotech start-ups and big pharma. Mr. Blacher has successfully developed a variety of drug candidates and advanced them into clinical trials in both the U.S. and Europe and has actively participated in the programs of several currently marketed biopharmaceutical products including: human insulin (Humulin®), Interferon Alpha (Roferon®), Interleukin-2 (Proleukin®), anti-CD11a (Raptiva®) and anti-EGFR (Vectibix®). He is knowledgeable in all phases of protein/antibody therapeutic drug development including creation of cell lines, upstream and downstream manufacturing, analytical methods development and formulation and is experienced in managing multiple outsourced contract research and manufacturing organizations, quality and compliance programs and is current in Good Manufacturing Practices. He has also authored numerous Chemistry, Manufacturing, Controls sections for regulatory submissions, holds several patents and published more than 50 scientific papers. Mr. Blacher earned his BA in Biochemistry from Thomas A. Edison State College, NJ.
About ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc.
ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc. is a development stage biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing precision medicine therapeutics to treat neurodegenerative diseases, in particular Alzheimer's disease (AD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The Company's proprietary target discovery engine is based on the use of two complementary techniques. The Company applies its thermodynamic, computational discovery platform—ProMIS™ and Collective Coordinates — to predict novel targets known as Disease Specific Epitopes (DSEs) on the molecular surface of misfolded proteins. Using this unique precision medicine approach, the Company is developing novel antibody therapeutics and specific companion diagnostics for AD and ALS. ProMIS is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, with offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ProMIS is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, under the symbol PMN.TO, and on the OTCQB Venture Market under the symbol ARFXF.
For further information please consult the Company's website at: www.promisneurosciences.com
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This announcement contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts; they are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "aims", "potential", "goal", "objective", "prospective", and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "can", "possibly", "could" or "should" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made and they involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Except as required by the securities disclosure laws and regulations applicable to the Company, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.
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SOURCE ProMIS Neurosciences Inc.
For media inquiries, please contact: David Schull, RussoPartners/LLC, [email protected], Tel. 858 717-2310; For Investor Relations please contact: Alpine Equity Advisors, Nicholas Rigopulos, President, [email protected], Tel. 617 901-0785; Dr. Elliot Goldstein, President and Chief Executive Officer, ProMIS Neurosciences Inc., Tel. 415 341-5783, [email protected]
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