Avilar Therapeutics Appoints Adam Muzikant, PhD, as Chief Business Officer

WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Avilar Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company focused on extracellular protein degradation, today announced the appointment of Adam Muzikant, PhD, as Chief Business Officer. Dr. Muzikant brings 18 years of business development experience creating and executing value-creating deals, from platform collaborations to commercial-stage product licenses and M&A, across a range of therapeutic areas and technologies at both private and public biopharmaceutical companies. In his role at Avilar, Dr. Muzikant will be responsible for corporate and business development as well as various business operations functions.

“We are excited to welcome Adam to the Avilar leadership team during this time of significant growth of our company,” said Daniel Grau, CEO and President of Avilar Therapeutics. “He brings exceptional expertise in business development and will play a central role in defining and executing our business, partnering, and financing strategy. Adam’s strong track record of success in establishing diverse partnerships is an ideal fit for Avilar as we build a world-class company focused on extracellular protein degradation.”

“I am thrilled to join the impressive team at Avilar and to help realize the full potential of the company’s innovative ATAC (ASGPR Targeting Chimeras) protein degradation platform and the broad applications of this approach to create new impactful degrader medicines in many therapeutic areas,” said Dr. Muzikant. “I look forward to working in close collaboration with my new colleagues as we strive to make a meaningful difference in the lives of patients suffering from serious diseases.”

Dr. Muzikant joins Avilar after serving as Chief Business Officer of Flexion Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FLXN), where he was instrumental in the sale of the company to Pacira BioSciences for up to $1B in enterprise value. While at Flexion, he was a member of the executive committee and drove construction of a pipeline of novel drug candidates through asset acquisitions, executed a China development and commercialization deal for ZILRETTA®, and orchestrated the R&D efforts of Flexion’s Innovation Lab. Before joining Flexion, Dr. Muzikant was VP Business Development at Synta Pharmaceuticals, where he led the strategic transaction process culminating in a merger with Madrigal Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Synta, he held business development leadership positions at AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Inotek Pharmaceuticals, EPIX Pharmaceuticals, and Predix Pharmaceuticals, and also performed transaction/strategic advisory work at Locust Walk for biotech and pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Muzikant holds a BS in Engineering from the University of California, San Diego and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University.

About Avilar Therapeutics

Avilar Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company pioneering the discovery and development of extracellular protein degraders, a new frontier in targeted protein degradation. Avilar develops ATACs (ASGPR Targeting Chimeras), a new class of protein degraders that shuttle disease-causing proteins from circulation to the endolysosome where the unwanted proteins are degraded. Avilar has built a proprietary ATAC platform that includes novel, high-affinity, small molecule ASGPR ligands and advanced modeling of the biophysics, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of ATAC mediated endocytosis and degradation. The ATAC platform enables the modular design and synthesis of ATACs extendable across the extracellular proteome to a wide range of proteins involved in the pathogenesis of human diseases. Avilar is leveraging the ATAC platform to create a broad and diverse pipeline of first-in-class extracellular protein degraders. Avilar was founded and financed by RA Capital Management and based in Waltham, MA. For more information, please visit www.avilar-tx.com and follow us on Twitter @Avilar_Tx and on LinkedIn.