CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Catabasis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:CATB), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, today announced that it has named Joseph Johnston as Vice President, Regulatory Affairs. Mr. Johnston brings to Catabasis over 25 years of pharmaceutical industry experience.
“Joe brings to Catabasis deep regulatory expertise including experience with orphan and pediatric diseases,” said Joanne Donovan, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer of Catabasis. “He is an excellent addition to our executive management team as we progress edasalonexent (CAT-1004) for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).”
“I am very pleased to have the opportunity to bring my regulatory experience to Catabasis and join a company that is committed to making a meaningful impact for the patients and families affected by DMD,” commented Mr. Johnston.
Prior to joining Catabasis, Mr. Johnston was at Ionis Pharmaceuticals (formerly Isis Pharmaceuticals), a biopharmaceutical company in RNA-targeted drug discovery and development, where he served as Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Quality from 2008 to May 2016. Previously, Mr. Johnston held a series of roles with increasing responsibility at Isis Pharmaceuticals from 1990, when he was part of the original scientific team, to 2008. In his time at Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Mr. Johnston provided global regulatory leadership on hundreds of regulatory applications including experience with rare diseases as well as pediatric indications. Mr. Johnston holds a M.B.A. from University of California Irvine and a M.S. in Pharmacology and a B.A. in Biology, both from the University of Pennsylvania.
About Catabasis
At Catabasis Pharmaceuticals, our mission is
to bring hope and life-changing therapies to patients and their
families. Our SMART (Safely Metabolized And Rationally Targeted) linker
drug discovery platform enables us to engineer molecules that
simultaneously modulate multiple targets in a disease. We are applying
our SMART linker platform to build an internal pipeline of product
candidates for rare diseases and plan to pursue partnerships to develop
additional product candidates. For more information on the Company's
drug discovery platform and pipeline of drug candidates, please visit www.catabasis.com.
Forward Looking Statements
Any statements in this press
release about future expectations, plans and prospects for the Company,
including statements about future clinical trial plans and other
statements containing the words “believes,” “anticipates,” “plans,”
“expects,” “may” and similar expressions, constitute forward-looking
statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those
indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various
important factors, including: uncertainties inherent in the initiation
and completion of preclinical studies and clinical trials and clinical
development of the Company’s product candidates; availability and timing
of results from preclinical studies and clinical trials; whether interim
results from a clinical trial will be predictive of the final results of
the trial or the results of future trials; expectations for regulatory
approvals to conduct trials or to market products; availability of
funding sufficient for the Company’s foreseeable and unforeseeable
operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements; other matters
that could affect the availability or commercial potential of the
Company’s product candidates; and general economic and market conditions
and other factors discussed in the “Risk Factors” section of the
Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31,
2016, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and
in other filings that the Company may make with the Securities and
Exchange Commission in the future. In addition, the forward-looking
statements included in this press release represent the Company’s views
as of the date of this press release. The Company anticipates that
subsequent events and developments will cause the Company’s views to
change. However, while the Company may elect to update these
forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company
specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking
statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company’s views
as of any date subsequent to the date of this release.