As Corvidia CEO, Marc de Garidel saw the heart disease biotech through a $2.1 billion acquisition by Novo Nordisk. Barely two months later, he’s back in the saddle, this time at AZTherapies, a company working on treatments for Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.
He didn't always know where he'd end up, though, de Garidel said, adding that he had lots of choices for his next role.
"What happened is, when the Corvidia deal was announced, within two days, I received 11 different job proposals," he said. "They were not offers, but at least proposals for CEO. So, I got exposed to, and thought about, different things."
He landed on AZTherapies because of the dearth of disease-modifying treatments in an area that sorely needs them as well as the company's inflammation-targeting approach.
De Garidel takes over from founding CEO David Elmaleh, Ph.D., who stays on as executive chairman of the board and becomes the company’s chief scientific officer. He arrives as AZTherapies pushes its lead program ALZT-OP1 through a phase 3 study in early Alzheimer’s disease. The drug is a combination of the mast cell stabilizer cromolyn and anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen. It is designed to drive down inflammation in the brain, shifting microglia—the immune cells in the brain—into a “neuroprotective state” and block the buildup of amyloid proteins. The company expects to wrap up the trial by the end of the year.
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That's another thing that hooked de Garidel: "What was a bit special about AZTherapies was the fact that it was very advanced in late-stage clinical development. We will know very quickly early next year whether this is going to work or not," he said.
Beyond Alzheimer’s, AZTherapies is working on treatments for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and cognitive impairment stemming from stroke. It’s also engineering regulatory T cells, or Tregs, with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) to make off-the-shelf CAR-Treg therapies that could be useful in neurodegenerative diseases.
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“I cannot think of a better leader to bring AZTherapies into its next evolutionary phase as we look ahead to the conclusion of our Phase 3 COGNITE trial in early Alzheimer’s disease, ramp up our ALZT-OP1 pre-commercial activities, and continue to advance our pipeline,” Elmaleh said in a statement Thursday. “Marc’s breadth of experience and successes across all aspects of global drug and corporate development give him a unique perspective that I believe will enable him to add significant value to the company. I look forward to working together to expand the outreach of our novel CNS platforms.”
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De Garidel is probably best known for being the CEO of Ipsen. In his nearly six years at the company, he oversaw the U.S. launch of Somatuline Depot, a treatment for gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, a rare type of tumor that can form in the pancreas or other parts of the gastrointestinal tract including the stomach, small intestine and appendix. He also struck a deal that saw Ipsen pick up the rights to market Exelixis’ cancer med Cabometyx outside the U.S. De Garidel remains a nonexecutive chairman at the French pharma company.
He began his career at Eli Lilly, where he held various roles spanning sales, marketing, finance and human resources, before moving onto Amgen, where he started out as its chief financial officer in Europe. At the end of his 15-year tenure, he was leading Amgen’s operations in most of Europe and South America.
In his new role, de Garidel looks forward to building AZTherapies up for its next stage of life. That includes delivering clinical data to regulators, laying the groundwork for a commercial operation and raising capital—lots of it.
"We were gratified to raise $33.6 million just a couple of days ago, but to launch this drug in the U.S. alone, I think we would probably need to raise in the range of $200 million in the next year or so, between a crossover and an IPO," de Garidel said.