BERKELEY, Calif., Feb. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Aerovance Inc. today announced the appointment of Babatunde A. Otulana, M.D., to the position of senior vice president and chief medical officer.
Dr. Otulana, 52, will provide medical as well as organizational and regulatory leadership to the company as it moves forward with the development of AerovantTM for uncontrolled asthma and AerodermTM for severe atopic eczema. He has more than 20 years of experience in pulmonary research and product development.
“Tunde has a wealth of experience in the planning and implementation of clinical development programs for pulmonary drugs,” said Mark Perry, Aerovance’s president and chief executive officer. “He will focus on advancing Aerovant through clinical development, beginning with our upcoming Phase IIb clinical trial in patients living with uncontrolled asthma, while further developing Aerovance’s pipeline.”
Prior to joining the company, Dr. Otulana worked with Aradigm Corp., where he most recently served as senior vice president, development, and chief medical officer. At Aradigm, his responsibilities included the management of all clinical development, regulatory affairs, QA & QC, and R&D activities for respiratory specialty pharmaceutical products. Prior to Aradigm, he was a medical reviewer and team leader at the Division of Pulmonary Drug Products Center for the Drug Evaluation & Research of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Dr. Otulana is a practicing pulmonologist and has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals, most recently in the field of pulmonary delivery of therapeutics.
“I am excited to be joining the Aerovance team as the company advances its unique pipeline to meet significant unmet medical needs in the field of allergy and pulmonary medicine,” said Dr. Otulana. “Aerovant and Aeroderm represent a new class of compounds which, if successful in development, will provide new tools for physicians in the management of intractable severe asthma and atopic dermatitis respectively, in millions of patients.”
Aerovant is a recombinant human IL-4 variant that is a potent inhibitor of IL-4R alpha, a shared component of both the IL-4 and IL-13 receptors. Aerovance acquired the worldwide rights to the drug candidate when the company was formed as a spin-out of Bayer Pharmaceuticals Corporation in 2004.
Aerovance Inc. is a Berkeley, Calif.-based biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of breakthrough therapies for the treatment of respiratory and inflammatory diseases. For more information, visit www.aerovance.com.
Editor’s Note: Photograph available on request
CONTACT: Andreas Marathovouniotis, +1-212-845-4235,
andreas.marathis@russopartnersllc.com or David Schull, +1-212-845-4271
david.schull@russopartnersllc.com, both of Russo Partners; or Dave Happel,
Aerovance Inc., +1-510-549-5525, dave.happel@aerovance.com
Web site: http://www.aerovance.com/
