Healthcare Industry News: Sunesis Pharmaceuticals
News Release - March 19, 2009
Alvine Pharmaceuticals Appoints Dr. Daniel C. Adelman, M.D. as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer
SAN CARLOS, Calif.--(HSMN NewsFeed)--Alvine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced the appointment of Dr. Daniel C. Adelman as Senior Vice President, Development and Chief Medical Officer (CMO).Prior to joining Alvine Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Adelman was Senior Vice President of Development and Chief Medical Officer at Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Prior to that, he served in various roles at Pharmacyclics, Inc., including Vice President of Clinical Operations and Biometrics and was a Clinical Scientist at Genentech, Inc. Dr. Adelman began his career at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, where he was Director of Clinical Allergy/Immunology in the Division of Allergy and Immunology. He continues to serve as Adjunct Professor of Medicine at UCSF. He holds a BA in Biology from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.D. degree from the University of California, Davis.
“I am excited to be joining Alvine as the company plans its Phase 2 clinical trials of ALV003 in patients with celiac disease. Patients currently suffer from a lack of an effective therapy for this disease and its complications. I believe that ALV003 will provide celiac patients with significant benefits in the management of their disease,” said Dr. Adelman. “I’m privileged to be able to work with the scientifically creative and dedicated team at Alvine,” he added.
About Celiac Disease
Celiac disease is the most common hereditary autoimmune disease with prevalence as high as 2% in the U.S. and E.U. Celiac disease is triggered by the ingestion of gluten in genetically susceptible individuals. Gluten is a protein found naturally in wheat, rye, and barley, and is one of the most common and nutritionally significant ingredients in the human diet. Patients with celiac disease mount an immune response to gluten and gluten fragments, resulting in systemic immune mediated damage in the gut and other organs. Gluten ingestion can be associated with symptoms such as nausea, diarrhea, constipation and rash. Complications of celiac disease can include osteoporosis, anemia, dermatitis, weight loss, diabetes, central nervous system conditions, other autoimmune diseases and malignancies. The only available option for individuals diagnosed with celiac disease today is a life-long adherence to a strict gluten-free diet, which is difficult to follow.
About Alvine
Alvine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a privately held biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing and commercializing therapeutics for autoimmune/gastrointestinal diseases. Alvine’s lead product candidate, ALV003, is a combination protease engineered to degrade gluten, and is being developed to treat patients with celiac disease. For additional information about the company, please visit www.alvinepharma.com.
About ALV003
ALV003 is an orally administered combination of two recombinant proteases engineered to degrade gluten into non-immunotoxic fragments, by targeting the glutamine and proline residues that are common in gluten. ALV003 consists of a glutamine specific cysteine protease (EP-B2) and a proline specific prolyl endopeptidase (PEP).
Source: Alvine Pharmaceuticals
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