14 Mar 2017 07:00
Tiziana Life Sciences PLC
("Tiziana" or the "Company")
Tiziana Life Sciences Appoints Dr. Arun Sanyal to its Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Arun Sanyal is a distinguished professor and a key opinion leader in liver diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)
London, 14 March 2017 - Tiziana Life Sciences plc (AIM: TILS, the "Company"), a clinical stage biotechnology company developing targeted drugs for cancer, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, announces the appointment of Dr. Arun Sanyal as a new member of its Scientific Advisory Board.
Gabriele Cerrone, Executive Chairman of the Company commented: "We are absolutely delighted to welcome Professor Sanyal as a distinguished new member of Tiziana's Scientific Advisory Board. His esteemed medical career covering liver cirrhosis, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a strategic addition to our team for further clinical development of NI-0401, a fully human anti-CD3 mAb for treatment of NASH and primary biliary cholangitis (PBC).
"Oral treatment with non-Fc binding anti-CD3 mAb with exceptional tolerability is an innovative approach for the treatment of liver inflammatory diseases such as NASH and NAFLD. I am pleased and excited to be a part of the team for clinical development of NI-0401", said Professor Sanyal.
About Professor Arun Sanyal
Arun Sanyal, MD is the Professor of Medicine, Physiology and Molecular Pathology, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Medicine. Dr. Sanyal is special Council Board Member of NIAAA (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism) and has been a past President of the AASLD (American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases). He has chaired committees at the NIDDK NASH clinical research network and the NIH hepatobiliary study section. Dr. Sanyal was instrumental in establishing the international Liver Forum for NASH and continues to serve as a Chair of this organization comprising industry, academia and regulatory bodies from the USA and EU. Dr. Sanyal is also leading several major drug trials for the treatment of NASH. He has published over 300 papers in leading medical journals and periodicals throughout his career.
About Tiziana Life Sciences
Tiziana Life Sciences plc is a UK biotechnology company that focuses on the discovery and development of novel molecules that treat human disease in oncology and immunology.
The Company is focused on its lead compound, milciclib, a molecule which blocks the action of specific enzymes called cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK) involved in cell division as well as a number of other protein kinases. Milciclib is currently completing phase II clinical trials for epithelial thymic carcinoma and/or thymoma in patients previously treated with chemotherapy and has filed an IND to enroll patients in an exploratory trial in Hepatic Cellular Carcinoma (HCC).
The Company is also in clinical development of foralumab. Foralumab is the only fully human engineered anti-human CD3 antibody in clinical development. This phase II compound has potential application in a wide range of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, such as ulcerative colitis, multiple sclerosis, type-1 diabetes (T1D), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis, where modulation of a T-cell response is desirable.
Tiziana Life Sciences' clinical development teams are working on its Bcl-3 candidate; which has a prominent role in the metastasis of mammary cancers, and has elucidated the mechanism of Bcl-3 action to be a regulator of cancer cell motility and has also determined that Bcl-3 inhibition suppresses cell motility in triple-negative, HER-2-positive PR- and ER-positive breast cancer sub-types, suggesting that Bcl-3 may be a master regulator of this metastatic property not only in aggressive breast cancers, but across the clinical spectrum of breast disease. The Company is preparing the IND package with the intention of progressing to clinical trials early 2017.
For more information go to http://www.tizianalifesciences.com
Contacts
Tiziana Life Sciences plc Gabriele Cerrone, Chairman and founder
| +44 (0)20 7493 2853 |
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (Nominated adviser) Liam Murray
| +44 (0)20 7213 0880 |
Beaufort Securities Limited (Broker) Elliot Hance
| +44 (0)20 7382 8300 |
FTI Consulting Simon Conway / Natalie Garland-Collins | +44 (0)20 3727 1000 |