Arete Therapeutics Appoints Donald Santel to Board of Directors
HAYWARD, Calif., Dec. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Arete Therapeutics Inc., a privately-held biopharmaceutical company developing first-in-class small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of cardiovascular, inflammatory and metabolic diseases, today announced the appointment of Donald J. Santel to its board of directors.
"We are very pleased to welcome Don to our board of directors, as his strategic and operational insights will be of great benefit to the Company as we advance our first-in-class antihypertensive agent AR9281 toward a clinical proof of concept," said Dinesh V. Patel, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Arete Therapeutics.
"Don's broad experience coupled with his understanding of the opportunities and challenges in building innovative healthcare organizations make him a valuable addition to the board of directors," said James Topper, M.D., Ph.D., chairman of the board of Arete Therapeutics.
Donald J. Santel brings more than 25 years experience in the biotechnology/biopharmaceutical and medical device industries. Most recently, he was co-founder and chief executive officer at CoTherix, Inc., where he launched Ventavis(R) Inhalation Solution and led the sale of the company to Actelion Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. in January 2007. Prior to CoTherix, he served as president and chief operating officer of Reflow, and sold the company to Fox Hollow (now EV3) and served as vice president of marketing and international sales at Cardiac Pathways Corporation, a medical device company later acquired by Boston Scientific. Mr. Santel began his career at Medtronic, Inc. Currently, Mr. Santel also serves on the board of Anthera Pharmaceuticals, ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals, and Hyperion Therapeutics. He has a BSE from Purdue University and an MS in from the University of Minnesota.
About Arete Therapeutics Inc.
Arete Therapeutics Inc. is a privately held pharmaceutical Company discovering and developing first-in-class small molecule drugs directed at soluble epoxide hydrolase (s-EH), a novel target for cardiovascular, metabolic and inflammatory diseases. By targeting s-EH which plays a key role in the arachidonic acid pathway, the Company is addressing the very large market need for a unique anti-hypertensive drug with renal sparing, cardio-protective and anti-inflammatory properties. Arete has discovered and developed a series of proprietary and chemically diverse molecules with preclinical efficacy in various animal models of hypertension, metabolic syndrome, and inflammation, and is conducting a phase 1 clinical trial with its first-in-class antihypertensive drug AR9281. The Company has raised a total of $51 million in Series A financing led by Frazier Healthcare Ventures (http://www.frazierhealthcare.com), Alta Partners (http://www.altapartners.com), Three Arch Partners (http://www.threearchpartners.com), Burrill & Company (http://www.burrillandco.com) and Altitude Life Science Ventures (http://www.altitudefunds.com). For more information on Arete Therapeutics, please visit http://www.aretetherapeutics.com.
CONTACT: Angela Bitting, +1-925-202-6211, a.bitting@comcast.net, for Arete
Therapeutics
Web site: http://www.aretetherapeutics.com/