LoQus23 Therapeutics appoints Dr. Melanie Ivarsson, OBE, as Non-Executive Director

• Dr. Ivarsson is currently Chief Development Officer at Moderna and led clinical trials of the company’s Covid-19 vaccine
  

Cambridge, UK – 25^th January 2022 – LoQus23 Therapeutics Ltd. (‘LoQus23’), a biotech discovering small molecule therapies that target aberrant DNA mismatch repair (MMR) to treat Huntington’s and other triplet repeat diseases, announces the appointment of Dr. Melanie Ivarsson, OBE, as Non-Executive Director of the Board.

Dr. Ivarsson is a highly accomplished leader in the life sciences sector with more than 20 years of experience at pharmaceutical companies including Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Shire and Takeda, working across all phases of clinical drug development. Her work has included treatments for rare diseases such as hereditary angioedema (Takhzyro, Cinryze, Firazyr) and lysosomal storage disorders including Gaucher disease (VPriv), Hunter's syndrome (Elaprase) and Metachromatic leukodystrophy. She is currently Chief Development Officer at Moderna, where she oversees the delivery of all clinical development programmes across the company’s portfolio and led clinical trials to develop one of the world’s first Covid-19 vaccines.

Dr. Ivarsson was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2022 New Year's Honours List for Services to Public Health.

David Reynolds, CEO and Co-Founder of LoQus23, said: “On behalf of the board I’d like to welcome Melanie to LoQus23. We’re delighted to have someone of her calibre join LoQus23 – her vast expertise in rare disease drug development will be invaluable as we make the next important steps in advancing our pipeline of drugs for triplet repeat disorders, and her interest in the company is a strong validation of our small-molecule, MMR-targeting approach to these conditions.”

Dr. Melanie Ivarsson, Non-Executive Director at LoQus23, added: “Triplet repeat disorders like Huntington’s Disease remain an area of huge unmet medical need for patients around the world, so I’m excited to be joining a company investigating disease-modifying treatments for these conditions. Research has demonstrated the key role of the MMR pathway for neurodegeneration in these diseases, and oral small molecule drugs have a strong track record in treating complex brain disorders while providing greater convenience for patients. With these factors combined, LoQus23 has the potential to become a frontrunner in this important disease area.”

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About LoQus23 Therapeutics Ltd

LoQus23 is a biotech company discovering oral therapies targeting aberrant DNA mismatch repair for the treatment of Huntington’s Disease and other triplet repeat disorders. Targeting DNA mismatch repair has the potential to stop DNA instability and therefore slow neurodegeneration in these diseases. LoQus23 is focused on using a structure-based approach to design small molecule drugs, which can offer more convenient administration than other approaches.

LouQs23 was founded in 2019 by members of the Dementia Discovery Fund including Dr David Reynolds, Dr Caroline Benn, and Dr Ruth McKernan FMedsci CBE. The Company is headquartered in Cambridge, UK.

For more information please visit www.loqus23.com

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