Minoryx appoints new chairman of board of directors
<p>Dr. Khalid Islam has extensive experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry and the company believes he can lead them to great successes</p>
After closing a €19.4-millions round of funding, Minoryx Therapeutics (a biotechnology firm based at the TecnoCampus in Mataró) has appointed Dr. Khalid Islam chairman of the board of directors, taking over for Dr. Nigel Ten Fleming. Dr. Islam has 27 years of experience in the sector and was president and CEO of Gentium SpA from 2009 to 2014, where he led the transition of the loss-making company to profitable and cash-flow positive. Under his leadership, the company merged with Jazz Pharmaceuticals, bringing its value to $1 billion.
“His extensive experience in managing innovative drug discovery and development companies will be key to the future success of Minoryx", says CEO and co-founder of the company, Marc Martinell. Dr. Khalid Islam also expressed his enthusiasm for the project, “2016 is an important year for Minoryx as we progress our lead candidate MIN-102 into clinical trials".
When Minoryx closed the round of funding in October, it also took on three new board members: Laia Crespo of Ysios Capital, Thierry Laugel of Kurma Partners and Monique Schiersing of the Roche Venture Fund.
The company, which specializes in developing drugs for minority diseases without treatment, is working on a candidate to combat the neurodegenerative disease X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD). The next milestone the biotech firm hopes to achieve is taking this candidate, known as MIN-102, into the clinical stage. At the same time, they hope to complete validation of SEE-Tx, a drug-discovery platform with technology that can identify a new generation of pharmacological chaperones.
More information is available in the press release.