20 August 2018 - - US-based pharmaceutical company Evecxia, Inc's board of directors has appointed John Kaiser as chief executive officer and interim chairman of the board, the company said.

Kaiser has been working with the company's management team and Board since March 2018.

He brings to Evecxia over three decades of biopharmaceutical drug development and commercialization expertise having most recently served as interim CEO of Cerecor Inc.

Kaiser also previously served as CEO of Denysias Bioscience, CBO at Acadia Pharmaceuticals and positions of increasing responsibilities over a 25+ year career at Eli Lilly and Company.

Evecxia is a privately funded, clinical stage pharmaceutical company co-founded by Duke neuro-psychopharmacologists, Dr. Marc Caron and Dr. Jacob Jacobsen.

The company is located in the Research Triangle Park, North Carolina

Evecxia's singular mission is to develop and commercialize EVX-101 to treat patients suffering from disabling, common, and costly neuropsychiatric conditions in which current therapies, in many cases, are sub-optimal.

Evecxia said it is the first company dedicated to realising the therapeutic potential of 5-hydroxytryptophan via specialized Rx combinations and drug delivery dosage forms.

EVX-101 is a unique and proprietary oral slow-release formulation of 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) and low-dose carbidopa. Initially, EVX-101 will be developed and positioned as a first-line adjunctive treatment in depressed patients responding inadequately to conventional antidepressants.

As an antidepressant, the development of EVX-101, a new chemical entity, is uniquely de-risked because the therapeutic mechanism, elevating extracellular serotonin beyond the effect of conventional SSRI/SNRI antidepressants, enjoys human proof-of-concept for efficacy and safety.