Curtis brings to Catabasis more than 19 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, and has been integrally involved in the development of over 15 compounds in the preclinical, clinical and commercial settings.
He spent the last five years at Infinity Pharmaceuticals as vice president of Pharmaceutical Development.
Curtis will be responsible for leading the company’s product development strategy and will oversee advancement of its preclinical programs, IND-enabling studies and clinical trials.
He will report to Michael Jirousek, CEO and co-founder of Catabasis.
Catabasis CEO and co-founder Jill Milne said that Curtis’ leadership experience and strong track record of moving products from discovery into and through clinical development will be of significant value to the company as we continue to progress our CAT 1000 pre-clinical programs in inflammation, and prepare to initiate IND-enabling studies in type 2 diabetes next year.
Using its proprietary Catabasis SMART-linker technology, Catabasis has developed a pipeline of molecules to amplify the beneficial effects of salicylates and omega-3 fatty acids to target the underlying etiologies of a spectrum of complex human diseases.
Curtis said that Catabasis’ unique approach to developing new chemical entities that combine omega-3 fatty acids with other well-characterized compounds to treat inflammatory and metabolic diseases is extremely exciting.