20 November 2019 - - US-based orphan lung disease company Savara Inc. (NASDAQ: SVRA) has appointed Badrul Chowdhury, M.D., Ph.D., to the newly created position of chief medical officer, effective immediately, the company said.
Dr. Chowdhury will be Savara's senior physician overseeing the medical and regulatory strategy of the company's investigational programs from late-stage development through to approval.
He will also provide oversight of medical affairs and patient safety across the portfolio.
Dr. Chowdhury joins Savara from AstraZeneca, where he was senior vice president, Chief Physician-Scientist for Respiratory, Inflammation, and Autoimmunity Late Stage Development, in Biopharmaceuticals R and D.
For 16 years prior to that, Dr. Chowdhury served as director, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Rheumatology Products, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the US Food and Drug Administration where he provided scientific and regulatory oversight of both common and rare diseases such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, cystic fibrosis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythromatosis, and various autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
Dr. Chowdhury is a medical doctor, and also holds a Ph.D. in Immunology. He completed Internal Medicine residency training from the Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, Michigan, and Fellowship training in Allergy and Immunology from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. He is double board certified in Internal Medicine and Allergy and Immunology.
Over the course of his career, Dr. Chowdhury has been a member of many committees within the FDA, NIH, World Health Organization, United Nations Environmental Programme, and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (AAAAI). Additionally, he has published scientific articles in more than 60 peer-reviewed scientific and medical journals and has been bestowed numerous research, academic, and service awards/honors.
Savara is an orphan lung disease company. Savara's pipeline comprises Molgradex, an inhaled granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) in Phase 3 development for autoimmune pulmonary alveolar proteinosis, in Phase 2a development for nontuberculous mycobacterial lung infection in both non-cystic fibrosis and CF-affected individuals with chronic NTM lung infection; and AeroVanc, a Phase 3-stage inhaled vancomycin for treatment of persistent methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) lung infection in CF.
Savara's strategy involves expanding its pipeline of potentially best-in-class products through indication expansion, strategic development partnerships and product acquisitions, with the goal of becoming a company in its field.
Savara's management team has significant experience in orphan drug development and pulmonary medicine, identifying unmet needs, developing and acquiring new product candidates, and effectively advancing them to approvals and commercialisation.