VICTORIA, BC, Oct. 2, 2024
/CNW/ - Eupraxia Pharmaceuticals Inc. ("Eupraxia" or the
"Company") (TSX: EPRX) (NASDAQ: EPRX), a clinical-stage
biotechnology company leveraging its proprietary DiffuSphere™
technology to optimize drug delivery for applications with
significant unmet need, today announced the recent appointments of
Chief Scientific Officer Amanda
Malone, as Chief Operating and Scientific Officer, and Rahul
Sarugaser, as Executive Vice President of Corporate
Development.
"These appointments strengthen and round out our senior
leadership team as we continue to advance the DiffuSphere™
technology, co-developed by Dr. Malone, into increasingly
later-stage clinical settings," said Dr. James Helliwell, CEO of Eupraxia. "Dr.
Sarugaser's scientific background combined with his healthcare and
capital markets experience and relationships, make him an ideal
addition to the team to support our ongoing corporate leadership
and growth. In his analyst coverage of Eupraxia, he developed a
deep understanding of our science, business and growth opportunity
enabling a strong strategic approach to our development. Dr
Malone is a dedicated, innovative and passionate leader who
has been at the forefront of our highly successful R&D
initiatives since Eupraxia's inception. We are excited to have her
apply her considerable skillset to our business operations as a
whole."
Background on Amanda
Malone
Dr. Malone co-founded Eupraxia with Dr. Helliwell in 2012 and
built Eupraxia's research, manufacturing, quality, non-clinical,
regulatory, intellectual property and clinical functions. She is
listed as inventor on six patent families that have resulted in
more than 70 patents and patent applications.
Under Dr. Malone's leadership, the Company delivered a
successful and potentially pivotal phase 2 study in osteoarthritis
and launched a second clinical development program in eosinophilic
esophagitis ("EoE"). Her expanded duties include developing
management strategies to support operational excellence, resource
management, and cross-functional collaboration to drive the
organization's business.
Dr. Malone previously served as COO for Auritec Pharmaceuticals,
a biotechnology company specializing in complex drug delivery
systems. She holds a PhD in Bioengineering from Stanford University where she received several
academic distinctions including the Stanford BioX Fellowship and a
National Science Foundation Fellowship.
Background on Rahul Sarugaser
Over the past 20 years, Dr. Sarugaser has held progressively
senior roles in the capital markets and healthcare sector, and was
most recently Managing Director, Equity Research, Biotech &
Medtech with Raymond James, where he
actively covered Eupraxia.
Prior to that, he was an equities analyst with Paradigm Capital.
Previously, he was Director, Business Development for the Centre
for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine, a Canadian
not-for-profit supporting the commercialization of regenerative
medicine-based technologies and cell and gene therapies with
strategic funding, dedicated infrastructure and specialized
business and scientific expertise.
Dr. Sarugaser holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the
University of Toronto and an MBA from
the University of Oxford.
About Eupraxia Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Eupraxia is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on
the development of locally delivered, extended-release products
that have the potential to address therapeutic areas with high
unmet medical need. DiffuSphere™, a proprietary, polymer-based
micro-sphere technology, is designed to facilitate targeted drug
delivery of both existing and novel drugs. The technology is
designed to support extended duration of effect and delivery of
drugs in a hyper-localized fashion, targeting only the tissues that
physicians are wanting to treat. We believe the potential for fewer
adverse events may be achieved through the precision targeting and
the stable and flat delivery of the active ingredient when using
the DiffuSphere™ technology, versus the peaks and troughs seen with
more traditional drug delivery methods. The precision of Eupraxia's
DiffuSphere™ technology platform has the potential to augment and
transform existing FDA-approved drugs to improve their safety,
tolerability, efficacy and duration of effect. The potential uses
in therapeutic areas may go beyond pain and inflammatory
gastrointestinal disease, where Eupraxia currently is developing
advanced treatments, to also be applicable in oncology, infectious
disease and other critical disease areas.
Eupraxia's EP-104GI is currently in a Phase 1b/2a trial, the RESOLVE trial, for the treatment
of EoE. EP-104GI is administered as an injection into the
esophageal wall, providing local delivery of drug. This is a unique
treatment approach for EoE. Eupraxia also recently completed a
Phase 2b clinical trial (SPRINGBOARD)
of EP-104IAR for the treatment of pain due to knee osteoarthritis.
The trial met its primary endpoint and three of the four secondary
endpoints. In addition, Eupraxia is developing a pipeline of later
and earlier-stage long-acting formulations. Potential pipeline
indications include candidates for other inflammatory joint
indications and oncology, each designed to improve on the activity
and tolerability of currently approved drugs. For further details
about Eupraxia, please visit the Company's website at:
www.eupraxiapharma.com.
Notice Regarding Forward-looking Statements and
Information
This news release includes forward-looking statements and
forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable
securities laws. Often, but not always, forward-looking information
can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "is
expected", "expects", "suggests", "scheduled", "intends",
"contemplates", "anticipates", "believes", "proposes", "potential"
or variations (including negative and grammatical variations) of
such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or
results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur
or be achieved. Forward-looking statements in this news release
include statements regarding the anticipated activities and
contributions of Drs. Malone and Sarugaser as members of the
Company's senior leadership team; the Company's product candidates,
including expected benefits to patients with respect to safety,
efficacy, duration and tolerability; the Company's product
candidates, including expected benefits to patients; the results
gathered from studies and trials of Eupraxia's product candidates;
the potential for the Company's technology to impact the drug
delivery process; potential market opportunity for the Company's
products, and potential pipeline indications. Such statements and
information are based on the current expectations of Eupraxia's
management, and are based on assumptions, including but not limited
to: future research and development plans for the Company
proceeding substantially as currently envisioned; industry growth
trends, including with respect to projected and actual industry
sales; the Company's ability to obtain positive results from the
Company's research and development activities, including clinical
trials; and the Company's ability to protect patents and
proprietary rights. Although Eupraxia's management believes that
the assumptions underlying these statements and information are
reasonable, they may prove to be incorrect. The forward-looking
events and circumstances discussed in this news release may not
occur by certain dates or at all and could differ materially as a
result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties
affecting Eupraxia, including, but not limited to: risks and
uncertainties related to the Company's limited operating history;
the Company's novel technology with uncertain market acceptance; if
the Company breaches any of the agreements under which it licenses
rights to its product candidates or technology from third parties,
the Company could lose license rights that are important to its
business; the Company's current license agreement may not provide
an adequate remedy for its breach by the licensor; the Company's
technology may not be successful for its intended use; the
Company's future technology will require regulatory approval, which
is costly and the Company may not be able to obtain it; the Company
may fail to obtain regulatory approvals or only obtain approvals
for limited uses or indications; the Company's clinical trials may
fail to demonstrate adequately the safety and efficacy of our
product candidates at any stage of clinical development; the
Company may be required to suspend or discontinue clinical trials
due to side effects or other safety risks; the Company completely
relies on third parties to provide supplies and inputs required for
its products and services; the Company relies on external contract
research organizations to provide clinical and non-clinical
research services; the Company may not be able to successfully
execute its business strategy; the Company will require additional
financing, which may not be available; any therapeutics the Company
develops will be subject to extensive, lengthy and uncertain
regulatory requirements, which could adversely affect the Company's
ability to obtain regulatory approval in a timely manner, or at
all; the impact of health pandemics or epidemics on the Company's
operations; the Company's restatement of its consolidated financial
statements, which may lead to additional risks and uncertainties,
including loss of investor confidence and negative impacts on the
Company's common share price; and other risks and uncertainties
described in more detail in Eupraxia's public filings on SEDAR+
(sedarplus.ca) and EDGAR (sec.gov). Although Eupraxia has attempted
to identify important factors that could cause actual actions,
events or results to differ materially from those described in
forward-looking statements and information, there may be other
factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those
anticipated, estimated or intended. No forward-looking statement or
information can be guaranteed. Except as required by applicable
securities laws, forward-looking statements and information speak
only as of the date on which they are made and Eupraxia undertakes
no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking
statement or information, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise.
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SOURCE Eupraxia Pharmaceuticals Inc.