Actimed Therapeutics has appointed Frank Misselwitz, M.D., Ph.D., as chief medical officer. Misselwitz joins after a 19-year career at Bayer that saw him jointly receive the German Future Prize for his work on anticoagulant Xarelto.
Bayer hired Misselwitz from Abbott in 2002. Over the following years, Misselwitz rose to the title of corporate vice president and came to lead cardiovascular clinical development at Bayer. The pace of development of oral direct FXa inhibitor Xarelto, which Bayer developed and got approved in its lead indication in 78 months, was a particular highlight. Misselwitz conceptualized and directed the large Xarelto development program.
Earlier in his career, Misselwitz supported the development of Humira while working at Knoll and Abbott. Knoll, where Misselwitz worked for five years, was the BASF unit that handled development of adalimumab before Abbott bought the business for $6.9 billion and turned the drug into Humira.
Misselwitz will now apply the experience he gained developing Xarelto and other assets to Actimed’s pipeline. Actimed is focused on cachexia, a wasting disease that affects most patients with cancer and some people with other serious chronic illnesses.
Actimed is developing ACM-001, its code name for S-pindolol, in the belief the molecule can address the diverse drivers of cachexia. If Actimed is right, ACM-001 will reduce catabolism, boost anabolism, decrease fatigue and increase appetite.
ACM-001, then known as MT-102, went through some clinical development before Actimed picked up the rights to the molecule. Actimed now plans to run a phase 2b program with a view to gathering the data needed to design phase 3 clinical trials. Misselwitz will oversee that work in his new role. Misselwitz gained insights into the program in his capacity as a member of the board at Actimed.