Poxel Announces Appointment of Christophe Arbet-Engels, MD, PhD, MBA, as Chief Medical Officer and EVP Late Development & Medical Affairs, Based in Boston

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  • Dr. Arbet-Engels will lead the Phase 3 Imeglimin program
  • Dr. Arbet-Engels is an industry veteran who has extensive experience in developing and launching drugs in diabetes, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, including Lantus® (insulin glargine; Sanofi) and Jardiance® (empagliflozin; Lilly)

LYON, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- POXEL SA (Euronext – POXEL - FR0012432516), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of innovative drugs to treat type 2 diabetes, today announced that Christophe Arbet-Engels, MD, PhD, MBA, has joined Poxel and will serve in a senior leadership role as Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President (EVP) Late Development & Medical Affairs. Dr. Arbet-Engels will be based in Poxel’s Boston area office.

“We are very pleased to welcome Christophe, a seasoned pharmaceutical and biotech executive, who brings extensive experience spanning the spectrum of drug research and development to commercialization, patient access and life-cycle management. In particular, Dr. Arbet-Engels has led development of large-scale registration studies for diabetes drugs and studies for cardiovascular disease and outcome. He is joining us at a pivotal time as we plan for Imeglimin’s Phase 3 registration program in Japan,” said Thomas Kuhn, CEO of Poxel.

“Christophe will work closely with Pascale Fouqueray, MD, PhD, who will be working in the newly created senior leadership role of Chief Development Officer, EVP Early Development & Translational Medicine, focusing on broadening Imeglimin’s product profile in diabetes and exploring other indications, the development of PXL770, and assessing other development opportunities for Poxel,” continued Thomas Kuhn. ”Together, they will continue to advance Poxel’s pipeline and strengthen Imeglimin’s differentiated profile with a particular focus on potential beneficial properties beyond glucose control, such as for cardiovascular and liver disease.”

“I am very excited to be joining the talented team at Poxel at such a critical time as the Company plans to advance Imeglimin into a registration program in Japan later this year. Based on published data, Imeglimin may also address a high unmet medical need by showing important cardiovascular benefits in patients with type 2 diabetes,” said Christophe Arbet-Engels, MD, PhD, MBA, Chief Medical Officer and EVP Late Development & Medical Affairs of Poxel. “In preclinical data, it was demonstrated that Imeglimin may have protective benefits in diabetic cardiomyopathy by improving diastolic and endothelial dysfunction. Based on these results, we believe that Imeglimin has the potential to address the underlying abnormalities leading to major cardiovascular complications of type 2 diabetes, including heart failure. Our plan for this year, in addition to the initiation of the registration program in Japan, is to conduct preclinical and clinical studies that will further differentiate Imeglimin and strengthen its potential benefits on cardiovascular complications for a worldwide development program, which will include cardiovascular outcome studies in the U.S. and the EU.”

Dr. Arbet-Engels has more than 25 years of experience in life sciences, academia and industry. He has served in senior leadership roles for programs with a focus in diabetes-metabolism and led programs, in complex global and local settings, ranging from diabetes, cardiovascular-metabolism, neurology, orphan diseases to oncology. Dr. Arbet-Engels’ leadership at several large pharmaceutical companies encompasses clinical development and registration, launch and lifecycle management for several innovative drugs for the treatment of diabetes, metabolism and cardiovascular diseases, including Lantus® (insulin glargine) and Jardiance® (empagliflozin). Most recently, he was Vice President, Worldwide Medical, Collaborative Medical Sciences at Biogen, driving strategy and execution of Phase 3b/4 life cycle management activities across several therapeutic areas ranging from neurology, hematology to rare diseases. In this position, Dr. Arbet-Engels built, developed and led global medical research, clinical operations, biostatistics/analytics, communication, and expanded access program teams to advance the medical sciences in areas of interest to Biogen. Prior to Biogen, Dr. Arbet-Engels worked in senior leadership positions in clinical development and medical affairs, in global or local roles, at pharmaceutical and biotech companies, including Boehringer Ingelheim, Roche, Merck, Aventis (now Sanofi) and Ligand Pharmaceuticals. In addition, Dr. Arbet-Engels served as a Medical Advisor to MedNest, provided expertise to the Gerson Lehrman Group, and worked as French Foreign Trade Advisor for the French Government to advise and support French or other startup companies develop their business in the U.S.

Dr. Arbet-Engels has a medical degree from University of Paris Sud, a PhD in endocrinology/diabetes and metabolism from Paris Descartes University and a master’s degree in business administration from Rutgers University.

About Poxel

Poxel uses its development expertise in metabolism to advance a pipeline of drug candidates focused on the treatment of type 2 diabetes. We have successfully completed our Phase 2 clinical program for our first-in-class lead product, Imeglimin, which targets mitochondrial dysfunction, in the U.S. and EU and have fully enrolled a Phase 2b clinical study in Japan. Our second program, PXL770, a direct AMPK activator, is in Phase 1 development. We intend to generate further growth through strategic partnerships and pipeline development. (Euronext: POXEL, www.poxel.com)

Poxel SA
Jonae R. Barnes, +1-617-818-2985
Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Public Relations
jonae.barnes@poxelpharma.com
or
Investor relations / Media - EU/US
MacDougall Biomedical Communications
Gretchen Schweitzer or Stephanie May, + 49 89 2424 3494 or + 49 175 571 1562
smay@macbiocom.com
or
Investor relations / Media - France
NewCap
Florent Alba/Nicolas Mérigeau, + 33 1 44 71 98 55
poxel@newcap.fr

Source: POXEL SA

Released March 7, 2017