Appointments of Howard Rutman, M.D., MBA, Brendan O’Leary, CFA, Kristin Murray, Steve Vicik, Ph.D., and Kristen Albright position company for success in rapid advancement of XT-150 and building a portfolio of products for chronic inflammatory conditions
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Xalud Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel non-viral gene therapies to treat pathologic inflammation through immune modulation, today announced the expansion of its management team with five new appointments, including Howard Rutman, M.D., MBA as chief development officer, Brendan O’Leary, CFA, as chief operating officer, Kristin Murray as chief regulatory officer, Steve Vicik, Ph.D. as chief technology officer and Kristen Albright as commercial development lead.
“As Xalud has reached an inflection point, I have assembled a world-class team of leading executives and scientists, with decades of experience and proven track records to support the continued advancement of XT-150 across multiple indications. We aim to build a franchise of therapeutics addressing chronic inflammation and neuroimmunology with our transformative non-viral gene therapy platform,” said Diem Nguyen, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Xalud. “The newly established leadership team, in addition to its strong legacy members, will strengthen the company to realize the full potential of XT-150, one of the first non-viral gene therapies available potentially for millions suffering from chronic inflammatory diseases.”
Xalud’s leadership team now includes the following industry leaders:
- Howard Rutman, M.D., MBA, joins Xalud as the company’s chief development officer. Howard’s significant experience in medical affairs and development across CNS, inflammatory disease, oncology, and dermatology and as a practicing clinician will lead Xalud’s development pathway for XT-150. Prior to his role at Xalud, Howard was vice president of medical affairs for Daiichi Sankyo’s US Business Division. In that role, he led the medical affairs group across all therapeutic areas to enhance the awareness of Daiichi Sankyo’s US approved and clinical-stage products through the generation, interpretation and exchange of high quality medical and scientific information valued by internal and external stakeholders.
- Brendan O’Leary, CFA, as the company’s chief operating officer, will bring his demonstrated leadership in finance, strategy, and commercial operations to guide the company’s strategic direction and business support functions. Brendan previously had an accomplished 17-year career at Pfizer where he most recently served as the general manager of Greenstone LLC, the top authorized generics company in the US. Prior to this, Brendan led strategy and commercial operations for an $11 billion business in Pfizer Essential Health and had key roles in corporate finance and business leadership during Pfizer’s transformation over the last decade.
- Kristin Murray joins Xalud as the company’s chief regulatory officer. Kristin will utilize her 25+ years of regulatory CMC and gene therapy expertise across a broad spectrum of drug, biologic, vaccines, and combination products to oversee and execute the company’s global regulatory strategy. Previously, Kristin was head of regulatory CMC – gene therapy at Ultragenyx, as well as vice president, head global regulatory affairs CMC at Shire Pharmaceuticals after several years at Pfizer and Wyeth.
- Steve Vicik, Ph.D., brings a wealth of strategic and execution expertise in pharmaceutical process and product development, manufacturing operations, and supply chain design and distribution to advance XT-150 for the treatment of various chronic inflammatory diseases as Xalud’s chief technology officer. Steve has led the development and manufacture of multiple clinical assets, supported several successful BLA/NDA registrations with subsequent global product launches, and coordinated manufacturing and distribution strategies for a drug portfolio enabling more than $5 billion in revenue.
- Kristen Albright joins Xalud as the company’s commercial development lead. Kristen will lead portfolio planning and drive the company’s commercial strategy to expand its non-viral gene therapy platform across numerous disease areas. Kristen is a highly accomplished senior business leader in the healthcare industry with more than 25 years of experience building high-performing U.S. and global marketing and sales organizations. She brings in-depth and hands-on experience and has led major blockbuster brands including Zyprexa®, Zoloft®, Zyvox®, Geodon®, Xalatan® and Premarin®.
Learn more about the expertise of Xalud’s leadership team here.
About Xalud Therapeutics
Xalud Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing a non-viral gene therapy platform to treat pathologic inflammation through immune modulation. The company is harnessing the power of interleukin-10 (IL-10), a potent cytokine that acts as a master regulator for multiple inflammatory pathways, to address the root cause of inflammation and subsequently restore homeostasis in the immune system. Xalud’s lead product candidate, XT-150, is a locally injectable plasmid DNA gene therapy expressing IL-10v, a proprietary modified variant of IL-10, that addresses pathologic inflammation and pain.
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