Cadent Therapeutics Appoints Christopher Kenney, M.D. as Chief Medical Officer and Provides Clinical Update

“I am delighted to welcome Chris as our Chief Medical Officer,” said Jodie Morrison, Chief Executive Officer of Cadent. “Chris brings over two decades of drug development expertise, including a deep focus in movement disorders, at a critical time for the company. His experience steering the development of drugs throughout his career will be invaluable as we advance into multiple Phase 2 clinical trials in 2020. Together with Dawn Wilson, our newly appointed Vice President of Clinical Operations, we are now well positioned to move Cadent’s promising pipeline forward. I look forward to their contributions as we seek to deliver on our commitment to improve the lives of patients with movement, mood, and cognitive disorders.”

“I am excited to be joining Cadent at this juncture, and I am impressed by the progress the team has made thus far on advancing its programs through the clinic,” said Dr. Kenney, Chief Medical Officer of Cadent. “The results of the first POC study with CAD-1883 from the movement disorders portfolio are encouraging. The safety profile and activity signal observed in the Phase 2 essential tremor trial validate Cadent’s approach to clinical designs for movement disorder research. I am thrilled to lead these important programs and believe they represent significant potential for new treatment options for patients in need.”

Dr. Kenney is a board-certified neurologist with extensive clinic research experience within neuroscience in both industry and academic roles over more than 20 years. He most recently served as Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs at Acorda Therapeutics and launched INBRIJA™, a novel inhaled treatment for Parkinson’s disease. Prior to that position, Dr. Kenney served as Vice President/Senior Vice president of clinical development, at Biotie Therapies, and then Acorda, following the acquisition. Before joining Biotie, Dr. Kenney worked in clinical development at Novartis and Merck Serono. In his role, Dr. Kenney will be responsible for the company’s clinical development strategy across the Cadent portfolio.

Dawn Wilson most recently served as Vice President, Clinical Operations and Program Management at Albireo Pharma and previously served as VP Clinical Operation and Data Management at Acceleron. Prior to Acceleron she held various clinical roles of increasing responsibility at Vertex, Wyeth and Idenix. Dawn will be responsible for execution of the clinical trials across the Cadent portfolio.

In addition to the expansion of the leadership team, Cadent also provided an update on its clinical and pipeline progress.

Movement Disorders Pipeline Update:

• Cadent conducted a Phase 2, open-label study evaluating CAD-1883, a novel first in class SK channel positive allosteric modulator, in twenty-five patients with ET in two cohorts. CAD-1883 was well tolerated in this study. Tremor response was assessed with The Essential Tremor Rating Assessment Scale Performance Score (TETRAS-PS). TETRAS-PS assessments were captured by videography and centrally reviewed by a rater blinded to treatment. A mean reduction in TETRAS-PS of -2.8 and -3.8 points was observed across the two cohorts respectively following 14 days of oral administration. Tremor was also objectively measured using accelerometry with the Kinesia One wearable sensor. Improvements in Kinesia One scores correlated with the improvements observed by centrally reviewed TETRAS-PS. “We are encouraged by the safety, tolerability and activity observed in patients with essential tremor. This supports SK modulation as a novel approach for the treatment of movement disorders. The successful implementation of centrally reviewed assessments and correlation to objective measurements of tremor sets the foundation for future expansion into other movement disorders,” said Michael Curtis, President and Head of Research and Development.

• Cadent plans to file an IND to initiate the Phase 2 study evaluating CAD-1883 in patients with SCA by year end 2019. This study, along with the results of the ET Phase 2 study will continue to inform potential clinical expansion into adjacent opportunities in other neurological conditions.

Cognitive Disorders Pipeline Update:

• Cadent has completed IND enabling studies and intends to file an IND for CAD-9303, a novel NMDAr positive allosteric modulator, by the end of the year and initiate a Phase 1/2 study in patients with Schizophrenia in the first half of 2020.

“As we enter the end of 2019 and look to 2020, we are excited by the progress of our programs and are closer to our goal of delivering innovative therapies for people living with movement, mood, and cognitive disorders,” said Jodie Morrison, Chief Executive Officer of Cadent. “Based on the promising results from our first POC study with CAD-1883, we look forward to further advances in our movement disorders pipeline into additional Phase 2 POC trials. In addition, we are excited to advance CAD-9303 from our cognitive disorder pipeline into clinical development by the end of this year.”

About Cadent Therapeutics

Cadent Therapeutics is creating therapies for the treatment of movement, mood, and cognitive disorders. The company combines target specificity, patient selection, drug design and optimization, and novel quantitative endpoints to create first-in-class molecules to treat movement and cognitive disorders. Cadent Therapeutics is rapidly advancing its pipeline of positive allosteric modulators to treat spinocerebellar ataxia, essential tremor, and schizophrenia. The company has an exclusive license and collaboration agreement with Novartis to develop a negative allosteric modulator, now in Phase 2 for the treatment of treatment resistant depression. Investors include Atlas Venture, Cowen Healthcare Investments, Qiming Venture Partners, Access Industries, Clal Biotechnology Industries, Novartis Corporate and Slater Technology Fund. For more information, please visit cadenttx.com.

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