10 October 2018 - - Canadian biopharmaceutical company Appili Therapeutics Inc has appointed industry veteran Theresa Matkovits, PhD, to serve on the company's board of directors, the company said.

Dr. Matkovits' career includes roles in all facets of anti-infective global drug development. She currently serves as the chief operating officer of ContraVir Pharmaceuticals, where she leads the global development for the company's clinical-stage antiviral portfolio.

In her work at ContraVir, Dr. Matkovits is a member of the executive team and is a key contributor to corporate strategy for value creation for the company's clinical portfolios.

Prior to serving as COO, Dr. Matkovits served as executive vice president, Head of Drug Development, where she was responsible for building and leading all global drug development functional areas for the company's infectious disease programmes, including Clinical Development, Regulatory Affairs, Manufacturing, Quality and Program Management.

Her experience includes representing the company and its development programs to external stakeholders and advisors, including investigators, key opinion leaders, global health authorities (including the US Food and Drug Administration), potential business development partners and the investment community.

She successfully led negotiations with the FDA for a 505(b)2 streamlined regulatory pathway and an accelerated Phase 2 development pathway for the company's anti-viral development programmes.

Prior to her tenure at ContraVir, Dr. Matkovits held several leadership positions at NPS Pharmaceuticals, where she led the successful clinical development and approval efforts for the orphan drug Natpara for the treatment of hypoparathyroidism.

She also spent several years as a vice president and Innovation Leader at The Medicines Company, where she co-led global development and supported commercialization efforts for the company's infectious disease franchise.

Dr. Matkovits began her career at Novartis, where she held positions of increasing responsibility in its US Medical and Drug Regulatory Affairs and Global Development Divisions, leading a number of high priority development programs for the company.

She is a member of the board of directors for BioSurplus and Aradigm Corp. Dr. Matkovits earned her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey - New Jersey Medical School.

Appili Therapeutics was founded to advance the global fight against infectious disease by matching clearly-defined patient needs with drug development programs that provide solutions to existing challenges patients, doctors and society face in this challenging disease space.

ATI-1501 employs Appili's proprietary, taste-masked, oral-suspension technology with metronidazole for the growing number of pediatric and elderly patients with difficulty swallowing.

ATI-1503 is a drug discovery programme aimed at generating negamycin analogue candidates, a novel class of antibiotics with broad-spectrum activity against Gram-negative bacteria.

Via an in-licensing program, Appili acquired the rights to ATI-1701, a vaccine for tularemia, removing risk from a weaponized bioterrorism pathogen.

Headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with offices in Mississauga, Ontario, Appili is pursuing worldwide opportunities in collaboration with science and industry commercial partners, governments and government agencies.