5 July 2019 - - Martin Edwards has been appointed and Richard H. Aldrich is resigning from US-based clinical stage pharmaceutical company KalVista Pharmaceuticals, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: KALV) board of directors, the company said.
Both changes are part of a planned transition and are effective immediately.
Edwards is Senior Partner (part time) at Novo Ventures and previously served as chair of KalVista when it was a privately held company.
He is chairman of the board of directors of Vantia Therapeutics Ltd., and a member of the board of directors of Verona Pharma, Nuvelution Pharmaceuticals Inc, Harmony Biosciences Inc, Inozyme Pharma Inc, F2G Ltd, and Karus Therapeutics Ltd.
Prior to joining Novo Ventures, Dr. Edwards was the CEO of ReNeuron Holdings, and formerly Corporate VP and Head of Drug Development for Novo Nordisk A/S where he was responsible for all aspects of pre-clinical and clinical drug development.
Earlier, he worked for six years in the USA first as VP Pharmacology and Medical Affairs of ZymoGenetics Inc. in Seattle, and then as Senior VP for Medical Affairs at Novo Nordisk in Princeton, NJ.
Dr. Edwards trained in physiology and medicine in Manchester UK. He was elected as a Member of the Royal Colleges of Physicians, a Member with distinction of the Royal College of General Practitioners, a Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine and holds an MBA from the University of Warwick.
KalVista Pharmaceuticals is a pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of small molecule protease inhibitors for diseases with significant unmet need.
The initial focus is on inhibitors of plasma kallikrein, which is an important component of the body's inflammatory response and which, in excess, can lead to increased vascular permeability, edema and inflammation.
KalVista has developed a proprietary portfolio of novel, small molecule plasma kallikrein inhibitors initially targeting hereditary angioedema and diabetic macular edema.
The company has created a structurally diverse portfolio of oral plasma kallikrein inhibitors and is advancing multiple drug candidates for HAE as well as DME.
The company has selected KVD900 as its program to be advanced as an on-demand therapy for HAE attacks and commenced a Phase 2 proof-of-concept study in HAE patients in late 2018.
In DME, KalVista's most advanced program, an intravitreally administered plasma kallikrein inhibitor known as KVD001, began a Phase 2 clinical trial in 2017 that is anticipated to complete in the second half of 2019.