REDWOOD CITY, Calif.– Nuvig Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharma company developing proprietary recombinant human therapeutics for patients with autoimmune diseases, today announced the appointment of Julie Anne Smith as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and member of the Board of Directors. Ms. Smith has over 20 years of experience in the life science industry, with a focus on leading private and public biotech companies through development and commercialization of therapeutics for orphan diseases. Pamela Conley, Ph.D., cofounder and founding CEO of Nuvig Therapeutics, will serve as the Company’s Chief Scientific Officer.
“The board is very grateful to Pam for leading Nuvig from inception to this exciting inflection point, as the company enters IND-enabling activities for its lead program,” said Kenneth Harrison, Ph.D., Director of Nuvig Therapeutics and Partner at Novo Ventures. “We are excited by the dynamic leadership, vision, and experience Julie brings to the company and look forward to working closely with her to advance Nuvig’s therapies to patients.”
Nuvig’s lead program is a novel recombinant human antibody fragment engineered to induce immune modulatory mechanisms that restore immune homeostasis and control inflammation in autoimmune diseases. Nuvig is extending this technology to build a pipeline of differentiated protein therapeutics that can be used in the context of varied but well-defined inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.
“I’m delighted to join Nuvig at this pivotal time as the team has received strong investor support and rapidly advanced its novel technology to the IND-enabling stage,” said Ms. Smith. “I look forward to working with Pam and the team to propel our development candidates into the clinic with the goal of providing new therapeutic options for autoimmune diseases without broad immunosuppression.”
Prior to Nuvig, Ms. Smith served as President and CEO of ESCAPE Bio, a biotech company developing precisely targeted therapies for genetic forms of neurodegeneration. She previously served as President and CEO of Raptor Pharmaceuticals, which developed and commercialized therapies for the orphan disease nephropathic cystinosis and chronic pulmonary infections before its acquisition by Horizon Pharmaceuticals. Ms. Smith also served as Chief Commercial Officer of Enobia Pharmaceuticals until it was acquired by Alexion Pharmaceuticals. Earlier in her career, she held roles at Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Genzyme, Novazyme, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Ms. Smith serves as a director on the Boards of Exelixis (Nasdaq: EXEL) and Stoke Therapeutics (Nasdaq: STOK). Ms. Smith obtained her B.S. in biology from Cornell University.
