After Ardelyx cut a majority of its workforce this autumn, it appears a 13-year veteran was one to say goodbye. Jeff Jacobs, Ph.D., is headed to Goldfinch Bio to lead scientific operations of the kidney disease-focused biotech.
Jacobs will assume the chief scientific officer post, the same title he has worked under in his last two years at Ardelyx. Prior to that role, he was senior vice president of technical operations for five years and a VP of chemistry for his first six years at Ardelyx.
The new executive brings drug approval chops to Goldfinch. While at Ardelyx, Jacobs contributed to the discovery of Ibsrela, an NHE3 inhibitor approved by the FDA in September 2019 for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome with constipation.
The company has yet to bring the drug, known as tenapanor, to market in the U.S. Licensing partner Knight markets the drug in Canada, and Ardelyx cites the second quarter of 2022 as its U.S. launch period on its product website.
Jacobs disposed some of his Ardelyx securities multiple times in November, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The company axed 65% of its workforce in October with no clarity from the FDA on the future of tenapanor.
With his small-molecule discovery and development know-how, Jacobs will help Goldfinch bring forth its two main programs in kidney diseases. The first, GFB-887, is in a phase 2 study in patients with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, or FSGS, and diabetic nephropathy, DN. Interim data from the TRACTION-2 midstage study will readout in the middle of next year.
Jacobs will help the Cambridge, Massachusetts biotech expand its precision medicine pipeline for treatments of various kidney diseases, said Anthony Johnson, M.D., president and CEO of Goldfinch, in a statement.
Further down the pipeline, the 2020 Fierce 15 biotech is studying GFB-024 in an early-stage trial of patients with severe insulin-resistant DN and CB1 pathway overactivation. The 56-patient phase 1 trial commenced in May of this year and is estimated to complete in April 2022, according to ClinicalTrials.gov.