Immunovant Appoints Pete Salzmann as Chief Executive Officer
NEW YORK and BASEL, Switzerland, June 5, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Immunovant, a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative therapies for patients living with debilitating autoimmune diseases, today announced the appointment of Pete Salzmann, M.D. as Chief Executive Officer.
"We are incredibly excited to have Pete join Immunovant as the company advances the development of IMVT-1401," said Frank Torti, M.D., Vant Investment Chair at Roivant Pharma and Chairman of the Board at Immunovant. "Pete's track record of starting and expanding new businesses, launching and growing products, and building and leading high-performing teams is fully aligned with the expected next stages of growth for Immunovant and IMVT-1401."
Dr. Salzmann brings to Immunovant 20 years of experience from various leadership roles at Eli Lilly and Company, where he most recently served as Global Clinical Development Leader for baricitinib (Olumiant®). He was responsible for designing and executing comprehensive indication development strategy and overseeing clinical trials of baricitinib. During his tenure at Lilly, Dr. Salzmann was instrumental in bringing a number of highly-successful drugs to market, including Taltz® in the U.S., and led the launch and commercialization of products in major markets across a wide range of therapeutic categories, including immunology. Dr. Salzmann also served as a General Manager and started or expanded multiple Lilly businesses in major markets around the world, including China. Prior to joining Lilly, Dr. Salzmann was an attending physician at the University of California, San Francisco.
This appointment comes at a significant time for the company. On May 23, 2019, Immunovant announced that it initiated dosing in ASCEND-GO 1, an open label, single-arm Phase 2a clinical trial evaluating IMVT-1401 in patients with moderate-to-severe active Graves' ophthalmopathy (GO). Immunovant also expects to initiate ASCEND-GO 2, a randomized, dose-ranging Phase 2b clinical trial evaluating IMVT-1401 in patients with GO, later this quarter. In addition to GO, IMVT-1401 is under development for the treatment of myasthenia gravis (MG). Immunovant anticipates initiating a Phase 2a clinical trial of IMVT-1401 for the treatment of MG later this quarter.
"I am delighted to be joining Immunovant at this exciting time," said Dr. Salzmann. "The Immunovant team has made extraordinary progress with IMVT-1401, which I believe has the potential to be a truly transformative treatment for multiple autoimmune diseases. Together with the leadership team and all of Immunovant's employees, I look forward to building on this foundation and continuing our pace of innovation and effective execution."
Dr. Salzmann holds an M.B.A. from Stanford University, Graduate School of Business, an M.D. from University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine, and a B.A. in Chemistry from Northwestern University.
About Immunovant
Immunovant, a member of the Roivant family of companies, is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative therapies that are designed to not only treat the symptoms, but also modify the course, of autoimmune disease. Immunovant's lead program is IMVT-1401, a novel, fully human anti-FcRn monoclonal antibody in development for the treatment of autoimmune diseases mediated by pathogenic IgG antibodies.
About Roivant Pharma
Roivant Pharma is the biopharmaceutical business unit of Roivant Sciences. Roivant Pharma is focused on end-to-end biopharmaceutical company creation, launch, and oversight. Roivant Pharma companies include Altavant, Aruvant, Axovant, Dermavant, Enzyvant, Genevant, Immunovant, Metavant, Myovant, Respivant, Urovant, and Arbutus.
About Roivant Sciences
Roivant aims to improve health by rapidly delivering innovative medicines and technologies to patients. Roivant does this by building Vants - nimble, entrepreneurial biotech and healthcare technology companies with a unique approach to sourcing talent, aligning incentives, and deploying technology to drive greater efficiency in R&D and commercialization.
Media Contacts:
Immunovant
Brad Middlekauff
brad.middlekauff@immunovant.com
Roivant
Paul Davis
paul.davis@roivant.com
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SOURCE Immunovant
