Scientific advisory board members include Caroline Apovian, M.D., Louis Aronne, M.D., FACP, Samuel Klein, M.D., Donna Ryan, M.D. and Randy Seeley, Ph.D.
CINCINNATI – December 14, 2023 – CinFina Pharma, CinRx Pharma’s portfolio company dedicated to expanding treatment options for obesity and metabolic diseases, today announced the scientific advisory board (SAB) members for the company’s multi-asset pipeline. The members of CinFina’s SAB include renowned metabolic and obesity academic researchers and expert clinicians.
The newly formed SAB will help guide the development of CinFina’s promising pipeline of versatile medicines including a long-acting growth/differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15) analog and a peptide YY (PYY) analog, both as monotherapy options and chemically combined with a GLP-1 receptor agonist. The pipeline includes CIN-109 and CIN-110, as well as additional early-stage candidates. CIN-109 is a first-in-class GDF-15 analog that has recently completed its multiple ascending dose (MAD) study to assess its safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and immunogenicity following administration of multiple subcutaneous doses in otherwise healthy subjects with obesity. CIN-110 is a potent and selective PYY3-36 analog, for which an Investigational New Drug (IND) Application is being filed with the U.S. FDA with plans for human clinical trials in Q1 2024.
“This impressive group of key opinion leaders in the metabolic space will be integral to the future success of our CinFina program as we look to fill the need for differentiated, safe, effective and tolerable treatments for obesity and weight management,” said Dr. Jon Isaacsohn, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at CinRx Pharma. “The formation of this SAB is timed with important development milestones for our monotherapy programs, and I believe we can make strong progress to help patients and physicians and address the global health crisis of obesity.”
The members of CinFina’s SAB are as follows:
Caroline Apovian, M.D. is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and co-director at the Center for Weight Management and Wellness, at Brigham & Women’s Hospital. One of the world’s premier weight management experts, Dr. Apovian has distinguished herself as a leading researcher, healthcare provider, teacher, and The New York Times bestselling author. Nationally, she is one of the founding creators of the American Board of Obesity. Her research interests are weight change and its effects on adipose tissue metabolism and inflammation, obesity and cardiovascular disease, resolution of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease in the bariatric surgery population, disparities in the treatment of obesity in underserved populations, and novel pharmacotherapeutic agents for the treatment of obesity.
Louis Aronne, M.D., FACP is a professor of metabolic research at Weill-Cornell Medical College, and director of the Center for Weight Management and Metabolic Clinical Research. Additionally, Dr. Aronne is founder and CEO of BMIQ, a weight control program that is delivered by health care providers to their patients during office visits. Vice-chairman of the board of the American Board of Obesity Medicine, he has authored more than 60 papers and book chapters on obesity and edited the National Institutes of Health Practical Guide to the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults. He served as a consultant to the VA Weight Management/Physical Activity Executive Council in the development of the MOVE program, the nation’s largest medically based weight control program.
Samuel Klein, M.D. is a professor of medicine and nutritional science at Washington University in St. Louis, and chief of the Division of Nutritional Science and Obesity Medicine. Dr. Klein is past president of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity and the American Society for Clinical Nutrition. He was inaugural chair of the Integrative Physiology of Obesity and Diabetes NIH study section. His research activities focus on understanding the mechanisms responsible for metabolic abnormalities associated with obesity and the therapeutic effects of weight loss.
Donna Ryan, M.D. is a professor emerita at Pennington Biomedical. Dr. Ryan was principal investigator for the U.S. Department of Defense for a series of awards which targeted military nutrition approaches to improve soldier readiness and performance. Her research interests included lifestyle intervention and diet for weight loss, and she was an investigator on NIH studies including POUNDS Lost, Look AHEAD, DPP, and DASH. She was the co-chair of the SELECT Steering Committee and consults with many companies developing medication and commercial medical interventions for obesity.
Randy Seeley, Ph.D. is a director at the Michigan Nutrition Obesity Research Center. Dr. Seeley’s scientific work has focused on the actions of various peripheral hormones in the central nervous systems (CNS) that serve to regulate food intake, body weight and the levels of circulating fuels. In particular, he has focused upon the numerous hypothalamic and gastrointestinal (GI) peptides and their associated receptors that influence both energy intake as well as peripheral metabolic processes, with a focus on developing new treatment strategies for both obesity and diabetes.
About CinFina Pharma:
CinFina, a CinRx portfolio company, is expanding the treatment of obesity and its associated comorbidities with a pipeline of therapeutic candidates designed to be safe, tolerable, and durable to help people lose weight and keep it off to improve their overall health. CinFina’s four therapeutic candidates are naturally occurring peptides engineered for prolonged activity which send signals in the body to control insulin secretion or feelings of satiety.
About CinRx Pharma:
CinRx is a mosaic of biotechnology companies supported by a dedicated funding mechanism designed to improve drug development success and accelerate transformational new medicines to patients. By integrating our deep scientific, clinical, and operational expertise with a thoughtful portfolio model, we establish the optimal development trajectory – a drug development superhighway. The company’s experienced team ensures high-potential medicines are financially and operationally championed with the most efficient route from the lab to the patient. For more information, please visit www.CinRx.com or follow the company on X and LinkedIn.
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