Addex Therapeutics announced today the appointment of Jean-Philippe Rocher, PhD, as Co-Head of Discovery and Member of the Executive Management, effective 1 June 2018.
Geneva, Switzerland, 7 February 2018 - Addex Therapeutics (SIX: ADXN), a leading company pioneering allosteric modulation-based drug discovery and development, announced today the appointment of Jean-Philippe Rocher, PhD, as Co-Head of Discovery and Member of the Executive Management, effective 1 June 2018. Dr. Rocher is a medicinal chemistry and drug discovery expert with more than 25 years industry experience, who previously built Addex’ small molecule allosteric modulator chemistry platform. Together with Robert Lütjens, Addex’s current Head of Discovery, he will oversee the preclinical portfolio of proprietary allosteric modulator programs and lead the chemistry components of our funded research programs on GABAB PAM with Indivior PLC and TrkB PAM with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
“Putting back together the successful chemistry and biology partnership of Jean-Philippe Rocher and Robert Lütjens, which built the Addex allosteric modulator discovery platform and delivered our proprietary pipeline is a significant achievement,” commented Tim Dyer, CEO of Addex. “The team will initially focus on delivering on our funded research programs which are being conducted in collaboration with Indivior PLC and The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.”
“I’m delighted to rejoin Addex and have the opportunity to continue the work that Robert Lütjens and I started in 2002", added Jean-Philippe Rocher. “Allosteric modulation is an exciting field which holds huge potential to transform the treatment of CNS disorders. I am looking forward to deploying my expertise and experience back at Addex.”
Dr. Rocher returns to Addex from his current position as CNS Program Director at Pierre Fabre. Joining Addex at its inception in 2002, Dr. Rocher established the company’s chemistry capabilities and helped build its small molecule allosteric modulator chemistry platform and pipeline. He played a pivotal role in the success of both internal and partnered programs, including the discovery of dipraglurant and ADX71149, both of which progressed into phase II clinical development. Under the leadership of Dr Rocher, Addex team discovered ADX71441, which was recently licensed to Indivior PLC. Prior to joining Addex, Dr. Rocher was director of chemistry at Devgen NV (Gent, Belgium), senior research scientist for GlaxoSmithKline KK (Tsukuba, Japan), scientific project leader in CNS at Mitsubishi Tanabe (Yokohama, Japan) and Head of Drug Discovery Unit for Battelle (Geneva, Switzerland). He started his career as a research scientist in the dermatology research centre of Galderma (Sophia-Antipolis, France) following a PhD in medicinal chemistry and Pharm D at the Faculty of Pharmacy of Lyon (France). He is a co-author of more than 35 research publications and patents.
About Addex Therapeutics
Addex Therapeutics (www.addextherapeutics.com) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel, orally available, small molecule allosteric modulators for neurological disorders. Allosteric modulators are an emerging class of small molecule drugs which have the potential to be more specific and confer significant therapeutic advantages over conventional “orthosteric” small molecule or biological drugs. Addex’s allosteric modulator drug discovery platform targets receptors and other proteins that are recognized as essential for therapeutic intervention - the Addex pipeline was generated from this pioneering allosteric modulator drug discovery platform. Addex’s lead drug candidate, dipraglurant (mGluR5 negative allosteric modulator or NAM) has successfully completed a Phase 2a POC in Parkinson’s disease levodopa-induced dyskinesia (PD-LID), and is being prepared to enter registration trials for PD-LID with support from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF). In parallel, dipraglurant’s therapeutic use in dystonia is being investigated with support from the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation (DMRF). Addex’s second clinical program, ADX71149 (mGluR2 positive allosteric modulator or PAM) is being developed in collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc for epilepsy. In addition, ADX71441 (GABAB receptor PAM) program was awarded a $5.3 million grant by the US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA, a division of National Institutes of Health (NIH)) to support human studies in cocaine addiction and has been licensed to Indivior. Discovery programs include mGluR4PAM, mGluR7NAM, TrkBPAM and mGluR3NAM & PAM that are being advanced with the support of the MJFF and Swiss Commission for Innovation and Technology (CTI).
Press Contacts:
Tim Dyer Mike Sinclair
Chief Executive Officer Partner, Halsin Partners
Telephone: +41 22 884 15 55 +44 (0) 207 318 2955
PR@addextherapeutics.com msinclair@halsin.com
Disclaimer / Forward-looking statements: This communication does not constitute an offer or invitation to subscribe for or purchase any securities of Addex Therapeutics Ltd. This publication may contain certain forward-looking statements concerning the Company and its business. Such statements involve certain risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such statements. Readers should therefore not place undue reliance on these statements, particularly not in connection with any contract or investment decision. The Company disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
