Sanifit opens headquarters in San Diego with new CMO
<p>Dr. Preston S. Klassen will be Chief Medical Officer for the US subsidiary and charged with growing business in the country</p>
Mallorca-based biotechnology firm Sanifit, which closed a €36.6-millions round of funding last year led by Ysios Capital –the largest ever in the sector in Spain– is growing its business and landing in San Diego, California, where it will have a headquarters led by Dr. Preston S. Klassen, recently named CMO.
The company has announced that Klassen will be charged with growing the company’s business and presence in the United States, in addition to fostering positive clinical development of experimental drug SNF472 to treat cardiovascular diseases in patients with ESRD (end-stage renal disease), a therapeutic target the company has been working on since it was founded in 2007 as a spin-off of the University of the Balearic Islands.
Preston Klassen has more than 14 years of experience in the sector. He was most recently Executive Vice President, Head of Global Development at Orexigen Therapeutics. Before that, he held several positions of increasing responsibility at Amgen and was a faculty member at the Duke University Medical Center.
“The appointment of Preston and the opening of our new office in San Diego provide a robust platform for Sanifit’s growth strategy as we expand into the US,” said Sanifit CEO Joan Perelló. According to the company, he is the first of the new hires to come for the San Diego offices. The Mallorca-based biotechnology company has recently completed clinical trials on its experimental drug in healthy volunteers (2014) and will now move into phase IIb. The company continues work on its calciphylaxis program.