CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, the leading sirtuin therapeutics company, announces the hiring of Peter Elliott, Ph.D., as Senior Vice President and Head of Development.
“Sirtris is very pleased to welcome Peter, who brings us extensive experience in drug development and has an impressive track record of delivering novel therapeutics,” said Christoph Westphal, M.D., Ph.D., CEO of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals. “Having spearheaded the advancement of more than a dozen drug candidates into clinical trials, Peter is well qualified to help Sirtris to capitalize on the breakthrough therapeutic potential of sirtuin modulators to meet unmet patient needs.”
Prior to joining Sirtris, Peter Elliott was Executive Vice President of Product Development at CombinatoRx, Inc., where he led development efforts resulting in eight phase II programs in inflammation and oncology. Dr. Elliott was previously Vice President of Pharmacology and Development at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he was a co-developer of the multiple myeloma drug, Velcade(R). Prior to that, Dr. Elliott was Director of Pharmacology at Alkermes, Inc., and led a number of CNS programs at Glaxo. Peter Elliott holds a B.S. from London University, and a Ph.D. in Psychopharmacology from Cambridge University.
“Recent sirtuin breakthroughs offer tremendous promise for discovery and development of novel drugs,” said Peter Elliott. “New therapeutics that modulate sirtuins present a unique method of fighting diseases as they harness the body’s own life-giving, health-promoting genes. I look forward to the opportunity of leading Sirtris’ efforts in advancing these new breakthrough medicines to patients.”
About Sirtris Pharmaceuticals
Sirtris Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company developing and commercializing novel therapeutics that modulate sirtuins, a recently discovered family of enzymes that promotes the body’s natural defense against disease. Also known as class III histone deacetylases (HDACs), sirtuins are attractive drug targets for a variety of unmet medical needs including metabolic and neurological diseases. Sirtris has built the dominant sirtuin intellectual property estate and know-how, with a comprehensive suite of reagents, proprietary assays, transgenic animal models, and biomarkers.
Founded in 2004 by Rich Aldrich, Richard Pops, Paul Schimmel, David Sinclair, and Christoph Westphal, Sirtris Pharmaceuticals has raised $45 million in private equity from leading venture capital firms, including Polaris Venture Partners, Techno Venture Management, Cardinal Partners, Skyline Ventures, Three Arch Partners, The Wellcome Trust, Novartis Bioventures Fund, Cargill Ventures, and Red Abbey. The company’s headquarters are in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For additional information, please visit http://www.sirtrispharma.com.
Sirtris Pharmaceutical
CONTACT: Kathryn Morris for Sirtris Pharmaceutical, +1-845-635-9828
Web site: http://www.sirtrispharma.com//
