Boston Pharmaceuticals Announces Former NIH Director, Dr. Elias Zerhouni, As the New Chair of Its Board of Directors

May 23, 2024 |

3 min read

Boston Pharmaceuticals has today named Dr. Elias Zerhouni as the new Chair of its Board of Directors, with Stefan Meister standing down from the Board after six years to focus on his ongoing roles elsewhere.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Boston Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing differentiated molecules addressing serious liver diseases, has today named Dr. Elias Zerhouni as the new Chair of its Board of Directors, with Stefan Meister standing down from the Board after six years to focus on his ongoing roles elsewhere.

Dr. Zerhouni has been a Board member and Scientific Advisor at Boston Pharmaceuticals since 2021. In assuming the position of Chair, he will now work even more closely with Sophie Kornowski, CEO of Boston Pharmaceuticals, her team, and the community of liver experts as the company’s promising drug candidates accelerate their development.

In particular, over the past few years Boston Pharmaceuticals has emerged with two exciting candidates in liver diseases and is focused on accelerating BOS-580, the company’s investigational, long-acting, once-monthly fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) analogue for the treatment of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH).

“I am pleased to assume the chairmanship of Boston Pharmaceuticals after having been a board member since 2021 and seeing the impressive progress in addressing the growing burden of liver diseases worldwide made under the guidance of Stefan Meister and leadership of our CEO Sophie Kornowski through promising molecules now in clinical development,” says Dr. Zerhouni.

Kornowski added: “I am delighted that Elias has taken on this additional leadership role. His vast experience and expertise will, I am sure, prove invaluable as we navigate the paths of our candidates through clinical development. I also want to thank Stefan for all of his many and sizeable contributions and accomplishments during his time as a colleague. I and the rest of the company are sincerely grateful to him for his role in helping Boston Pharmaceuticals get to this exciting stage in our journey.”

Dr. Zerhouni is a Professor Emeritus in Radiology and Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University and was most recently the President, Global Research & Development, and a member of the Executive Committee for Sanofi. He also served as the Director of the National Institutes of Health from 2002 to 2008. He is, since 2020, a member of the Board at B-Flexion and is also President and Vice Chairman of OPKO Health.

About BOS-580
BOS-580 is a once-monthly subcutaneous injectable of a long-acting, highly engineered variant of human fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) that regulates various metabolic pathways to decrease liver fat and ameliorate liver inflammation and damage in patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), also known as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).

About Boston Pharmaceuticals
Boston Pharmaceuticals is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company that leverages an experienced and committed drug development team to advance a portfolio of highly differentiated therapies that may address important unmet medical needs in serious liver diseases, with MASH as the focus of its lead asset. The Company has significant expansion opportunities through its portfolio of promising drug development candidates that were acquired through partnerships with proven, innovative biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Boston Pharmaceuticals applies rigorous decision making to advance programs to deliver differentiated medicines to patients in need of new options, while creating value for all parties involved in the journey.

For more information, please visit www.bostonpharmaceuticals.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

About B-Flexion
Boston Pharmaceuticals is a portfolio company of B-Flexion, a private entrepreneurial investment firm that partners with sophisticated capital to deliver exceptional value over the generations, while also contributing positively to society. Chaired by Ernesto Bertarelli and with offices across Europe and the United States, B-Flexion seeds, acquires and builds investment partnerships, principally in the fields of Private Equity, Venture & Growth Capital, Real Assets, Hedge Funds, Credit, and Public Securities. As well as these partnerships, B-Flexion makes principal investments in operating businesses in transformative industries with a focus on Healthcare, Planet, Consumer and Technology.

For more information, please visit www.bflexion.com.