ATLANTA, Feb. 11, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Antios Therapeutics, Inc. today announced the appointment of Patrick T. Higgins to the company’s board of directors. Mr. Higgins is a highly accomplished biopharmaceutical executive with more than two decades of experience leading companies in the development of therapies to treat infectious diseases of the liver including HBV and HCV.
“We have made significant progress on our lead asset, ATI-2173, a potential backbone treatment in a functional curative regimen for chronic HBV infection,” said Abel De La Rosa, Ph.D., co-founder of Antios and Chairman of its Board of Directors. “In conjunction with the completion of our Phase 1b clinical study in chronic HBV patients and with data expected to be presented at an upcoming medical conference, the addition of Pat’s significant expertise to our Board is very timely. We look forward to his guidance as we advance ATI-2173 in clinical development.”
Mr. Higgins has more than 35 years of biopharmaceutical executive experience of which the last 25 were with companies focused on infectious diseases including HBV and HCV for liver disease. His most recent position was as chief operating officer for Arbutus Biopharma, which is focused on developing a cure for HBV. In a prior role, he was a co-founder and chief executive officer of OnCore Biopharma, which he took public by merging with Tekmira Pharmaceuticals to form Arbutus. Before co-founding OnCore, he served as executive vice president, Commercial, for Pharmasset, which developed sofosbuvir, an FDA-approved therapy for HCV. Mr. Higgins was responsible for developing and executing the commercial strategy for sofosbuvir before the Company was acquired by Gilead Sciences in 2012 for $11 billion. Prior to Pharmasset, he led the infectious disease portfolio, including Pegasys® for hepatitis infections, for Hoffman-LaRoche and spent 13 years at Schering Plough in various roles. Mr. Higgins is currently a director on the Board of Saronic Biotechnology. He earned is B.A. at Villanova University and his M.B.A. at Seton Hall University.
“I have spent much of my career in the pharmaceutical industry working for companies seeking treatments and cures for chronic hepatitis infections,” said Mr. Higgins. “Antios is focused on developing a functional cure for HBV, a public health objective that has yet to be achieved. I am looking forward to working with the Antios team to make this dream a reality.”
About ATI-2173
ATI-2173 is a novel, orally-administered, liver-targeted Active Site Polymerase Inhibitor Nucleotide (ASPIN) molecule designed to deliver the 5’-monophosphate of clevudine to the liver. This L-nucleoside’s active 5’-triphosphate has unique antiviral properties as a non-competitive, non-chain terminating HBV polymerase inhibitor that distorts the active site of HBV polymerase resulting in potent HBV antiviral activity and extended off-treatment suppression of HBV DNA. ATI-2173 targets the liver, delivering high levels of the unique 5’- triphosphate while limiting systemic exposure to the parent L-nucleoside. ATI-2173 has the potential to become an integral part of a curative combination regimen for chronic hepatitis B.
About Antios Therapeutics Inc.
Antios Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of innovative therapies to treat and cure viral diseases. Antios is currently developing ATI-2173, aiming to provide chronic hepatitis B infected patients with a curative combination regimen.
