DÜSSELDORF, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Algiax Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on development of GABAA receptor modulators for neuropathic pain and other indications with unmet medical need, announced the appointment of Dr. Ingo Lehrke as CEO and Dr. Guido Koopmans as CSO, effective May 1, 2019.
Dr. Lehrke takes over from co-founder and shareholder Dr. Jürgen Schumacher who becomes chairman of Algiax´ new advisory board. “I am very happy to have Ingo join and lead our executive team” said Jürgen Schumacher. “He is an experienced pharma manager and has successfully developed and partnered a novel pain drug prior to joining Algiax. I believe that his knowledge will create high added value for the further development of our lead candidate AP-325.”
Dr. Lehrke served for the last ten years as Managing Director of tesa Labtec GmbH, a drug delivery company that is part of the Beiersdorf Group of companies. Before that he was managing director and shareholder of Labtec GmbH which was acquired by tesa SE in 2008. Dr. Koopmans is neuroscientist and holds a PhD in Biological Health Science. He co-founded Algiax Pharmaceuticals and developed AP-325 from bench to bedside.
The company further announced that it intends to start a phase IIa clinical study for its lead candidate AP-325 in chronic neuropathic pain. “We are excited to initiate the next development stage of AP-325 with the goal to show its proof-of-concept in patients, soon” said Dr. Koopmans. “We plan to have the first patient included in the fourth quarter of this year and expect first results in 2020”
About Algiax (www.algiax.com)
Algiax Pharmaceuticals is a clinical-stage biotechnology company established in 2011. It is dedicated to the discovery and development of innovative products to treat diseases with a high unmet medical need. Algiax’ lead candidate AP-325 is a small-molecule GABAA receptor modulator in clinical development as a therapy for neuropathic pain.
Next to AP-325 Algiax has discovered novel GABAA receptor modulator compounds called Thioacrylamide (ThAc) derivatives. The company is advancing a selection of ThAcs derivatives from its discovery to preclinical characterization.
