NEWTON, Mass., April 1, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq:KPTI), a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company, today announced the appointment of Mikael Dolsten, MD, PhD, President of Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development of Pfizer Inc., to the company's board of directors.
"Mikael brings significant pharmaceutical research and development expertise to Karyopharm. He will draw on over twenty-five years of clinical and regulatory experience, including at Pfizer, Wyeth Research and Boehringer Ingelheim, which will be invaluable as we continue to advance our product pipeline, including selinexor, our lead drug candidate in development for hematologic and solid tumor malignancies," said Michael G. Kauffman, MD, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Karyopharm Therapeutics.
"Karyopharm's pipeline of novel, first-in-class drug candidates targeting nuclear transport provides great potential opportunity for addressing a variety of unmet needs, including those of patients with relapsed and refractory malignancies," said Mikael Dolsten, MD, PhD. "I look forward to working with the Karyopharm team to continue to advance selinexor in these patients and potentially in earlier lines of therapy, as well as to advancing the company's other exciting pipeline compounds."
Mikael Dolsten, MD, PhD is President of Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development where he has responsibility for all research and development through proof of concept including oncology, inflammation/immunology, cardiovascular and metabolic disease, neuroscience, pain, vaccines and rare disease, as well as the Centers for Therapeutic Innovation and biotech unit Rinat. Dr. Dolsten also has responsibility for Development Operations which executes all Pfizer phase 1 through phase 4 clinical studies and the Worldwide Safety/Regulatory group which supports all Pfizer product registrations as well as global safety reporting. Prior to joining Pfizer in 2009, Dr. Dolsten was Senior Vice President of Wyeth and President of Wyeth Research where he was responsible for the global R&D division and led scientists across the US, Europe and Asia. Before joining Wyeth, he served as Executive Vice President at Boehringer Ingelheim, where he was responsible for worldwide research including activities at R&D sites in the US, Canada, Germany, Italy, Austria and Japan. His earlier career as a pharmaceutical research leader included senior management positions with AstraZeneca and Pharmacia & Upjohn. For more than twenty-five years in the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Dolsten led research and development groups that have selected more than one hundred candidate drugs for treatment of human disease and supported the advancement of more than fifteen significant drugs to registration and approval phases, many of which are constituents of current medical practice and are used in large numbers of patients worldwide. Dr. Dolsten earned his PhD in tumor immunology and his MD from the University of Lund in Sweden.
About Karyopharm Therapeutics
Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq:KPTI) is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel first-in-class drugs directed against nuclear transport targets for the treatment of cancer and other major diseases. Karyopharm's Selective Inhibitor of Nuclear Export / SINE™ compounds function by binding with and inhibiting the nuclear export protein XPO1 (or CRM1). The inhibition of XPO1 by Karyopharm's lead drug candidate, selinexor (KPT-330), a first-in-class, oral SINE™ compound, leads to the accumulation of tumor suppressor proteins in the cell nucleus, which subsequently reinitiates and amplifies their tumor suppressor function. This is believed to lead to the selective induction of apoptosis in cancer cells, while largely sparing normal cells. Over 600 patients have been treated with selinexor in Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials in advanced hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. Karyopharm has initiated three registration-directed clinical trials of selinexor, one in older patients with acute myeloid leukemia, one in patients with Richter's transformation and one in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Karyopharm plans to initiate a single-arm trial of selinexor in multiple myeloma in the first half of 2015 that is also intended to be registration-directed. In solid tumors, Karyopharm plans to initiate a Phase 3 pivotal trial of selinexor to treat liposarcoma during the second half of 2015. Additional Phase 1 and Phase 2 studies are ongoing or currently planned, including multiple studies in combination with one or more approved therapies in a variety of tumor types to further inform the company's clinical priorities. SINE™ compounds have shown biological activity in models of cancer, inflammation, autoimmune disease, certain viruses, and wound-healing. Karyopharm was founded by Dr. Sharon Shacham and is located in Newton, Massachusetts. For more information about Karyopharm, please visit www.karyopharm.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements include those regarding the therapeutic potential of and potential clinical development plans for Karyopharm's drug candidates, including the timing of initiation of certain trials and of the reporting of data from such trials. Such statements are subject to numerous important factors, risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events or results to differ materially from the company's current expectations. For example, there can be no guarantee that any of Karyopharm's SINE™ compounds, including Selinexor (KPT-330) or any PAK4 inhibitor, or any other drug candidate that Karyopharm is developing will successfully complete necessary preclinical and clinical development phases or that development of any of Karyopharm's drug candidates will continue. Further, there can be no guarantee that any positive developments in Karyopharm's drug candidate portfolio will result in stock price appreciation. Management's expectations and, therefore, any forward-looking statements in this press release could also be affected by risks and uncertainties relating to a number of other factors, including the following: Karyopharm's results of clinical trials and preclinical studies, including subsequent analysis of existing data and new data received from ongoing and future studies; the content and timing of decisions made by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory authorities, investigational review boards at clinical trial sites and publication review bodies; Karyopharm's ability to obtain and maintain requisite regulatory approvals and to enroll patients in its clinical trials; unplanned cash requirements and expenditures; development of drug candidates by Karyopharm's competitors for diseases in which Karyopharm is currently developing its drug candidates; and Karyopharm's ability to obtain, maintain and enforce patent and other intellectual property protection for any drug candidates it is developing. These and other risks are described under the caption "Risk Factors" in Karyopharm's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as of March 13, 2015. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and Karyopharm expressly disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
CONTACT: Justin Renz
(617) 658-0574
jrenz@karyopharm.com
Gina Nugent
(617) 460-3579
nugentcomm@aol.com