Pulmocide Announces Expansion of Management Team

LONDON, June 08, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pulmocide Ltd., (“the Company”) a late-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel inhaled therapies for patients suffering from serious acute and chronic respiratory diseases, today announced the appointments of Matt Dallas as its Chief Financial Officer and Ashish Sagrolikar as its Chief Commercial Officer.

Mr. Dallas brings more than 20 years of financial management experience in the life sciences industry. Most recently, he served as Chief Financial Officer of Zealand Pharma, a Danish biotechnology research company that designs and develops peptide-based medicines mainly focusing on metabolic diseases, like diabetes and obesity. Prior to Zealand, Matt held CFO roles with AVEO Oncology and CoLucid Pharmaceuticals. At CoLucid, he helped lead the company’s initial public offering and subsequent acquisition by Eli Lilly and Company. In addition, Matt previously worked at Genzyme Corporation, NEN Life Sciences, and Kimberly-Clark Corporation. Matt holds a B.S. in finance from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and serves on the University’s Finance Department Advisory Council.

Mr. Sagrolikar comes to Pulmocide with significant global leadership experience in commercial and operational functions at leading healthcare companies, such as Baxter Healthcare, GlaxoSmithKline, and Zogenix Inc. At Zogenix, where he was most recently Chief Operating Officer and prior to that Chief Commercial Officer, he helped lead the transformation of the company from a development-focused organization to a fully integrated, commercial stage company. Under his commercial leadership, Zogenix built a successful commercial team to launch an orphan disease drug which outperformed Wall Street expectations for six consecutive quarters before the company was acquired by UCB SA. Ashish is a pharmacist by training and earned his MBA from the Institute of Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland. He is also the treasurer and member of the Executive Committee at Triangle Angel Partners.

“Matt and Ashish bring a wealth of industry experience as they join Pulmocide and have allowed us to round out our team with the skills necessary to execute our business strategy,” said Daniel Burgess, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pulmocide. “Like the rest of our team, they share the vision of bringing a potentially transformative new therapy for patients with pulmonary aspergillosis in need of new treatment options. We are thrilled to have them join us in this journey.”

Mr. Dallas and Mr. Sagrolikar join a senior leadership team with significant experience in the discovery and development of inhaled therapies for respiratory disease indications, including Daniel Burgess, Chairman and CEO, Lance Berman, MB.ChB, Chief Medical Officer, Pete Strong, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer and Cofounder, Jennifer Giottonini Cayer, Chief Business Officer, Anne Brindley, Ph.D., Managing Director, UK, and Head of CMC, David Mantus, Ph.D., President, US Operations, Ubaldo Martin, M.D., Vice President of Clinical Development, and Sonya Roeloffzen, Vice President, Head of Global Regulatory Affairs. Together, the Pulmocide management team has a history of successful company development, including product development and approval, manufacturing, business development, finance, and commercial launch.

About Pulmonary Aspergillosis
The incidence of pulmonary fungal disease has increased substantially over the past two decades with Aspergillus species being the most common pathogen. Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) is associated with high morbidity and mortality rates in immuno-compromised patients including those undergoing hematological stem cell or solid organ transplantation (particularly lung transplants) and some patients in critical care, including those with COVID-19- or influenza-associated pulmonary aspergillosis. Aspergillus infection also plays an important role in severe asthma and cystic fibrosis and has been correlated with poorer clinical outcomes in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Chronic lung infections with Aspergillus can leave patients with extensive and permanent lung damage, requiring a lifetime of antifungal treatment.

About Opelconazole
Pulmocide’s opelconazole is a potent novel azole therapy specifically designed for inhaled use to maximize the amount of drug in the lung while providing minimal systemic exposure. This profile is anticipated to enhance efficacy with a low risk for adding to the toxicities and drug-drug interactions seen with systemic antifungal therapies. Under the United Kingdom’s Special Needs provision, opelconazole was found to be generally well tolerated and demonstrated remarkable clinical responses. In this program, patients with a variety of different clinical profiles who had failed previous antifungal treatment options responded well when opelconazole was added to their treatment regimen. Opelconazole has the potential to be useful in a variety of conditions where Aspergillus has been implicated, including chronic pulmonary aspergillosis, cystic fibrosis, severe asthma, allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, chronic pulmonary obstructive disease, severe flu, and post-COVID-19-associated lung damage. A late-stage clinical program has been initiated to support registration in patients who have failed prior therapy for IPA.

About Pulmocide
Pulmocide Ltd (www.pulmocide.com) is a late-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of a novel inhaled azole therapy for patients at risk of developing serious complications associated with aspergillosis, such as immunocompromised patients and those with severe pulmonary diseases. The company is currently focused on acute and chronic treatments for pulmonary aspergillosis and its lead product opelconazole is being developed initially for the treatment of IPA.