BOSTON– i2o Therapeutics, Inc. today announced the appointment of Kurt Graves as Chairman, President and CEO. He was previously Executive Chairman of the Board, a position he held since August 2021. Mr. Graves succeeds i2o co-founder and CEO Ravi Srinivasan, Ph.D., who is pursuing other leadership opportunities within the life sciences field.
While i2o has been actively advancing the ionic liquids technology in pre-clinical work on its lead GLP-1 asset, in parallel the company has completed a series of corporate and strategic transactions including:
- A $46 million Series A financing with top-tier biotech investors.
- An acquisition and integration of proprietary pipeline assets in the cardiometabolic space from Intarcia Therapeutics including long-acting GLP-1s, Amylin, Glucagon and PYY. The combination of long-acting GLP-1s and the other peptides noted hold significant potential to redefine the standards of care in diabetes, obesity, and related indications.
- An acquisition and integration of ITCA 650 and the Medici implant technology platform which is an investigational twice-yearly implantable GLP-1 for type 2 diabetes and was recently granted a public hearing on September 21 before an FDA Advisory Committee. The public hearing was granted by the Commissioner’s Office and FDA’s Chief Scientist.
- i2o has also entered into a new 4-year sponsored research and licensing agreement with the Mitragotri Lab at Harvard University to further strengthen its IP and leadership position in the Ionic Liquid space where additional ionic liquid uses and applications are being advanced.
A recent publication in the Lancet has estimated at the current pace that ~1.3 billion people will be living with diabetes by 2050 – a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. The authors concluded, “Diabetes will be a defining disease of this century,” and that “the world has underestimated the true scale and threat the disease poses…representing an urgent call to course correct.”
“The cardiometabolic assets and novel delivery platforms we have at i2o are important at a time when global policy and health officials are increasingly concerned by soaring diabetes and obesity prevalence rates and the massive implications that poor glucose and weight control will have on healthcare systems, societies, and global economies for decades to come,” said Kurt Graves, Chairman, President and CEO of i2o Therapeutics. “At i2o, our ultimate goal is to be an important part of the novel GLP-1 based combination products and innovative drug delivery solutions that are needed to raise the standards of care, address widespread unmet needs around poor control and poor adherence, and to help remove the barriers to access, affordability, and supply that are needed to help millions of patients.”
Mr. Graves has provided leadership to several highly innovative biotech and global pharmaceutical companies over the last 30 years. He has previously served as Chairman, President and CEO of Intarcia Therapeutics, former Chairman of Radius Health, former Executive Chairman of i2o Therapeutics, and as a Board member at Achillion Pharmaceuticals until it was acquired, and at Seres Health. He was also E&Y’s New England Entrepreneur of the Year in 2015. Previously, Mr. Graves served as EVP, Head of Corporate Development, Strategic Drug Development and Program Management and Head of Commercial at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Prior to that, he was at Novartis Pharmaceuticals for nearly 10 years, most recently as the Global Head of the General and Specialty Medicines Business and the first Global Chief Marketing Officer for the Pharmaceuticals division. Earlier in his career, at Merck and Astra-Merck for nearly 10 years, he worked on multiple cardiovascular and GI medicines and led the GI Business Unit responsible for developing and commercializing Prilosec®, Nexium® and Prilosec OTC®.
