Renovion, Inc. ("Renovion"), an early stage drug development company targeting a novel treatment for lung transplant patients and other chronic inflammatory respiratory diseases, announced today that Dr. Derek Winstanly, MBChB has been elected Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Dr. Winstanly served as the Executive Vice President, Chief Customer and Governance Officer of Quintiles Transnational, November 2011- 2015. He retired from Quintiles (now IQVIA) in 2015. His additional responsibilities included Government Affairs, Head of Compliance, Office of Chief Medical Officer and Chair of the Asia Pacific Regional Board. He joined Quintiles in 1999 as President of Quintiles Japan and was responsible for the implementation of the Asia Pacific Contract Pharmaceutical Organization. Prior to joining Quintiles, Dr. Winstanly worked for Glaxo and Glaxo Wellcome, now GlaxoSmithKline, for 15 years where he served in various leadership roles throughout the world including President of Nippon Wellcome, now Glaxo-SmithKline K.K., in Japan.
"Renovion is developing a novel therapy for the underserved population of lung transplant patients. It is exciting to develop a medication for this orphan population and we also believe that this drug can positively impact patients with cystic fibrosis and other respiratory diseases,” stated Dr. Winstanly. “I am very familiar with the company through my board service over the last two years, and we are excited about the future.”
The lead compound is currently being evaluated in a Phase 1 clinical trial at Duke University in patients who have lung dysfunction following bilateral lung transplant. The company has raised over $1.5 million in seed funding to support development for lung transplant patients. Derek states, “We look forward to recruiting patients into the Duke study in the coming months. This patient data, in combination with further in vitro research, presents a very compelling story for lung transplant patients and other target patient populations in need of effective and safe therapies.”
Over 2,000 end-stage respiratory disease patients receive a lung transplant annually in the United States. Lung transplant has one of the highest mortality rates of the solid organ transplants. Currently, there are no FDA-approved therapies for patients with a lung transplant – all therapies are used for lung transplant are used off-label with variable and modest success. Renovion has licensed the compound from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and aims to be the first FDA-approved therapy for patients post lung transplant. The company is also pursuing a clinical program to evaluate the therapy in cystic fibrosis patients.
In 2018, Renovion will be raising funds in a Series A round to complete pre-clinical and clinical development. For more information, please visit renovion.com.
Media Contact:
Dan Copeland, CEO
dan@renovion.com
SOURCE Renovion, Inc.