BRANFORD, Conn., Dec. 11, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Thetis Pharmaceuticals LLC (“Thetis”), a biopharmaceutical company developing oral, “immuno-resolving” therapies to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), announced that Stephen Hanauer, MD, Josh Korzenik, MD, and Florian Rieder, MD, have joined Thetis’ Scientific Advisory Board.
“Dr. Hanauer, Dr. Korzenik and Dr. Rieder are international leaders in the management of IBD who recognize the breakthrough potential of Thetis’ drug candidates,” said Gary Mathias, Thetis’ co-founder and chief executive officer. “Our lead candidate, TP-317, has prospects to be a safe, first-in-class, oral therapy for induction and maintenance of remission in ulcerative colitis patients that fail first-line therapy. TP-317 delivers Resolvin E1, a naturally-occurring lipid that has been shown to resolve inflammation and promote tissue regeneration. Based on these properties, TP-317 offers an approach that is differentiated from immunosuppressive agents such as biologics, which are associated with an increased risk of infection and malignancy.”
Dr. Hanauer commented, “Although many new IBD therapies have been approved in recent years and other novel anti-inflammatory therapies are on the horizon, the Thetis drug candidates offer a unique inflammation resolution-based approach to treating IBD.”
Dr. Korzenik commented, “Bioactive lipids play an important role in regulating mucosal inflammation. The Thetis technology offers the possibility of applying the known pro-resolving activity of endogenous lipids for treatment of IBD.”
Dr. Rieder further commented, “Mucosal healing is a principal goal of IBD treatment. Accomplishing this with safe, oral therapies would be a major advance for patients.”
About Our Scientific Advisors
Stephen B. Hanauer, MD, is the Clifford Joseph Barborka Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and current medical director of the Digestive Disease Center at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Over a distinguished 40-year career, Dr. Hanauer has served as chair of the International Organization for Inflammatory Bowel Disease, president of the American College of Gastroenterology, and is currently a member of the American Gastroenterology Association (AGA), GI Specialty Board of Internal Medicine, and the American College of Physicians. He previously served as chair of the FDA Gastrointestinal Drugs Advisory Committee, and authored the FDA’s “Guidance for Clinical Evaluation of Drugs for Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.”
Josh Korzenik, MD is director of the Brigham & Women’s Hospital Crohn’s and Colitis Center and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Korzenik has been involved in IBD research and clinical care for almost 25 years, with a focus on the role of innate immune defects and the microbiome in IBD pathogenesis. Dr. Korzenik is the author of nearly 60 peer-reviewed articles and research papers. Dr. Korzenik has been the principal investigator of over a dozen research projects, ranging from studies of diet and probiotics to international comparisons of IBD therapies.
Florian Rieder, MD, is an investigator in the Department of Pathobiology, and Associate Staff in the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at the Cleveland Clinic, where his clinical and research focus is IBD pathogenesis, prediction, and therapy. He has authored over 60 articles and book chapters on IBD, and is a member of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organization (ECCO), the AGA, the German Gastroenterology Association, the American Physiological Society, the American College of Physicians, and the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation. Dr. Rieder is the senior author of the new ECCO guidelines for ulcerative colitis management, lead author of the ECCO consensus on fibrostenosing IBD, and co-author of the new ECCO guidelines in Crohn’s disease.
About Thetis
Thetis Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company developing immuno-resolving oral therapies for the treatment of IBD. Thetis leverages the robust pharmacology of bioactive lipids with its proprietary technology platform to overcome the stability, manufacturing, formulation and patentability hurdles that have limited their development as pharmaceutical agents. Thetis applies this technology to lipids that have been shown clinically and pre-clinically to have efficacy in treating inflammatory diseases. Thetis was recently awarded a $2.3 million Fast Track NIH grant to develop TP-317 for ulcerative colitis.
For more information, please visit Thetis Pharmaceuticals’ website (www.thetispharma.com) and follow Thetis on Twitter (@thetispharma).