uniQure Announces Leadership Addition to Support Advancement of Clinical Programs
26 Giugno 2023 - 1:11PM
uniQure N.V. (NASDAQ: QURE), a leading gene therapy company
advancing transformative therapies for patients with severe medical
needs, today announced the appointment of Walid Abi-Saab, M.D., as
Chief Medical Officer, effective immediately. He will report to
Matt Kapusta, Chief Executive Officer of uniQure, and will be based
in the Company’s Basel, Switzerland office. Dr. Abi-Saab will be
responsible for leading all clinical research and development,
regulatory affairs, medical affairs, and program management at
uniQure.
With Dr. Abi-Saab’s appointment, Dr. Ricardo
Dolmetsch becomes President and Chief Scientific Officer. He will
continue to lead all research, non-clinical research, and vector
and enabling technology. “As we advance the
clinical development of AMT-130 in Huntington’s disease and move
additional gene therapy programs into the clinic, including AMT-260
in refractory temporal lobe epilepsy and AMT-162 in SOD1 ALS, it is
critical that we expand our clinical development expertise in the
company,” stated Mr. Kapusta. “Dr. Abi-Saab is a proven biopharma
executive with more than 20 years of experience in global drug
development. Under his leadership, more than 30 molecules have
advanced through clinical development leading to several approvals
in the US, EU and Canada. I am happy to welcome Walid to the
uniQure leadership team at this exciting time for the Company as we
advance our clinical programs for Huntington’s disease and other
serious diseases.”
“I am very excited to join uniQure at this very
promising moment for the Company,” stated Dr. Abi-Saab. “uniQure
has been a leader in gene therapy for 25 years and I’m particularly
impressed by their recent success in hemophilia B and pioneering
work in Huntington’s disease. I look forward to joining the team as
the Company advances the clinical development of AMT-130 and
initiates additional clinical studies in the near future.”
Dr. Abi-Saab joins uniQure from the
Belgium-based biopharmaceutical company Galapagos, where he served
as Chief Medical Officer from 2017 through 2022. While at
Galapagos, he expanded the company’s development organization and
led the company through a critical and transformative phase,
including the successful completion of the Phase 3 studies of
filgotinib (Jyseleca®) in rheumatoid arthritis and ulcerative
colitis. Prior to joining Galapagos, he served as Group Vice
President, Global Clinical Development at Shire, where he was
responsible for the clinical development plans of all programs in
the therapeutic area and oversaw the development of more than 10
marketed products and other programs in rare diseases and specialty
pharma. He also has previously held leadership positions at
Novartis, Abbott Laboratories, and Pfizer, and served as a
resident, research fellow, and assistant professor at Yale
University School of Medicine, where he completed Psychiatry
residency training and a Neuroscience Research Fellowship. He
obtained his bachelor’s degree in biology from the American
University of Beirut, Lebanon and his M.D. at the Université Saint
Joseph in Beirut.
In connection with the commencement of Dr.
Abi-Saab’s employment, the Company granted Dr. Abi-Saab an
inducement award consisting of a non-qualified option to purchase
115,800 ordinary shares of the Company and 67,200 restricted share
units. The exercise price of the options is based on the closing
price of the Company’s ordinary shares as reported on the Nasdaq
Capital Market as of June 26, 2023 (the “Grant Date”), the
effective date of the grants and the start date of Dr. Abi-Saab’s
employment with the Company. The option has a ten-year term and
will vest over four years, with 25% of the underlying shares
vesting on the first anniversary of the Grant Date and an
additional 6.25% of the shares vesting in approximately equal
quarterly installments over the twelve successive quarters
thereafter. The restricted share units vest in three approximately
equal annual installments beginning on June 26, 2024. The vesting
of each option and RSU is subject to Dr. Abi-Saab’s continued
service with the Company through the applicable vesting dates.
The aforementioned equity awards were approved
by the Company’s board of directors on June 13, 2023 and were
issued as a material inducement to commencing Dr. Abi-Saab’s
employment with the Company in accordance with and under Nasdaq
Listing Rule 5635(c)(4).
About uniQureuniQure is
delivering on the promise of gene therapy – single treatments with
potentially curative results. The recent approvals of our gene
therapy for hemophilia B – an historic achievement based on more
than a decade of research and clinical development – represents a
major milestone in the field of genomic medicine and ushers in a
new treatment approach for patients living with hemophilia. We are
now leveraging our modular and validated technology platform to
advance a pipeline of proprietary gene therapies for the treatment
of patients with Huntington's disease, refractory temporal lobe
epilepsy, ALS, Fabry disease, and other severe
diseases. www.uniQure.com
uniQure Forward-Looking
Statements
This press release contains forward-looking
statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act
of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act
of 1934, as amended. All statements other than statements of
historical fact are forward-looking statements, which are often
indicated by terms such as "anticipate," "believe," "could,"
“establish,” "estimate," "expect," "goal," "intend," "look forward
to," "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," “seek,”
"should," "will," "would" and similar expressions and the negatives
of those terms. Forward-looking statements are based on
management's beliefs and assumptions and on information available
to management only as of the date of this press release. These
forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, our
expectation to advance the clinical development of AMT-130 in
Huntington’s disease and the timing related thereto and our
intention to move additional gene therapy programs into the clinic.
Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated
in these forward-looking statements for many reasons, including
risks related to conducting the clinical trial for Huntington’s
disease, the impact of financial and geopolitical events on us and
the wider economy and health care system, our clinical development
activities, clinical results, collaboration arrangements,
regulatory oversight, product commercialization and intellectual
property claims, as well as the risks, uncertainties and other
factors described under the heading "Risk Factors" in our
periodic securities filings, including our Annual Report on Form
10-K filed with the SEC on February 27,
2023 and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with
the SEC on May 9, 2023. Given these risks,
uncertainties and other factors, you should not place undue
reliance on these forward-looking statements, and uniQure assumes
no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, even if
new information becomes available in the future.
uniQure Contacts: |
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FOR INVESTORS: |
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FOR MEDIA: |
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Maria E. Cantor |
Chiara Russo |
Tom Malone |
Direct: 339-970-7536 |
Direct: 617-306-9137 |
Direct: 339-970-7558 |
Mobile: 617-680-9452 |
Mobile: 617-306-9137 |
Mobile: 339-223-8541 |
mcantor@uniQure.com |
c.russo@uniQure.com |
t.malone@uniQure.com |
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