Nosopharm, a company dedicated to the research and development of new anti-infective drugs, announced the appointment of Dr Marie-Paule Richard and Dr Gilles Alberici to its supervisory board. Alberici will be its new chairman.
These new appointees will strengthen Nosopharm’s board with their expert knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry and skills in the development of new anti-infective therapies.
They join Nosopharm’s existing supervisory board members: Gwenaël Hamon (Kreaxi, Investment Manager), Franck Lescure (Auriga Partners, Partner) and Bernard Rivière (historic shareholder).
Alberici, PharmD, has 30 years experience in the European pharmaceutical industry, having established several innovative biopharmaceutical companies.
He joined the Mérieux Group in 1986 and founded IMTIX, a company specialising in immunosuppression, in 1994.
In 2000, he founded OPi, a company dedicated to rare and serious diseases. From 2007, he has been chairman of Octalfa, an independent, family-owned company specialising in the creation, management and funding of life sciences companies.
In 2008, Octalfa established the Dominique & Tom Alberici-Octalfa corporate foundation, which supports projects aimed at improving care for disabled people and cancer patients.
For more than 30 years, Richard, has worked in numerous executive positions in the clinical development of anti-infective agents (antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals) and therapeutic and preventative vaccines at international pharmaceutical and biotechnological companies, including Bristol-Myers Squibb, Aventis Pharma, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi Pasteur and Crucell.
She was Chief Medical Officer at AiCuris, Germany, before joining TiGenix in Madrid, Spain, in 2014 as Chief Medical Officer, focusing on allogenic cell therapy.
Richard is a member of the board of Tigenix, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US. She has a medical degree from the University of Nancy, France, with certifications in clinical immunology, pharmacology and pharmacokinetics.
“We are delighted to welcome Marie-Paule and Gilles to Nosopharm. Drawing on the strengths of this bolstered strategic team, Nosopharm aims to become a leading player in the research and development of new therapeutic antimicrobial agents,” said Philippe Villain-Guillot, CEO of Nosopharm.
“Having skills such as theirs within our team sends out a strong message to the pharmaceutical industry. Our priority now is to further develop our portfolio of innovative antimicrobial molecules and work towards making them available in clinic.”
“Multidrug resistance has become a major health concern throughout the world,” said Marie-Paule Richard. “The technology developed by Nosopharm is exciting and its team is made up of renowned talents. I am pleased to be able to participate in the development of this company.”
“Nosopharm has many strengths which have helped it become a major player in the field of anti-infective therapy research,” said Gilles Alberici.
“As the new chairman of the supervisory board, I will apply my experience of the pharmaceutical industry to the company’s development strategy and product portfolio.”
NOSO-502 is the most advanced molecule in Nosopharm’s portfolio. It inhibits bacterial translation with a new mechanism of action. Its main objective is the treatment of nosocomial infections with Enterobacteriaceae, including carbapenem-resistant (CRE) and polymyxin-resistant Enterobacteriaceae.
Enterobacteriaceae are considered priority pathogenic bacteria in the development of new antibiotics. In Europe in 2015, the rate of combined resistance to cephalosporin, aminoglycosides and fluoroquinolones in Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae was 5% and 19%, respectively.
Compared to 2005 this represents an increase of more than 150% for these two pathogens. For K. pneumoniae, the resistance rate to carbapenems, which are last-resort antibiotics, increased to 8%.
Every year multidrug-resistant hospital pathogens are directly responsible for at least 380,000 infections and 25,000 deaths in Europe. Treatment and social costs are estimated at $1.8 billion (€1.52bn).
Globally, antibiotic resistance could kill 10 million people each year by 2050 and cost a total of $100 trillion (€84.5tr).
Nosopharm aims to submit an IND authorisation application for NOSO-502 in 2020 with the objective of using it in humans that year. The company will also file patent applications to cover new classes of anti-infective therapies before the end of 2018.
