Ex-Purdue CEO Timney lands at amyloidosis biotech Attralus

Having sold off The Medicines Company to Novartis for $9.7 billion last year, former Purdue CEO Mark Timney is taking the helm of yet another biopharma company.

He joins Attralus Therapeutics, a company working on new treatments for systemic amyloidosis, alongside several other new hires. 

Timney arrives at Attralus as Purdue, the maker of OxyContin, faces numerous lawsuits linked to its role in the U.S. opioid epidemic. Timney himself is named in dozens of those lawsuits. 

RELATED: Purdue reaches $8B settlement on federal opioid charges—but will it ever pay that amount? 

After nearly four years as Purdue’s CEO, Timney resigned in 2017 to pursue other career opportunities, the Stamford Advocate reported at the time. In 2018, he joined The Medicines Company, which brought its RNA-silencing cholesterol medicine, inclisiran, through phase 3 in 2019, just ahead of the Novartis buyout. 

At Attralus, he takes over from co-founder Spencer Guthrie, who led the company in its early stages and who will stay on as chief operating officer, the company said in a statement.  

Attralus' new chief medical officer, Gregory Bell, M.D., joins the team from Global Blood Therapeutics and chief business officer, Glen Firestone, arrives after advising Valo Health and leading commercialization at cell therapy biotech Tmunity Therapeutics. The company also hired Krishna Gorti, M.D., another Medicines Company alum, to lead corporate development, and Michael Klein, Ph.D., to lead chemistry, manufacturing and controls. 

Attralus also added to its board of directors Rahul Kakkar, M.D., the CEO of Pandion Therapeutics until Merck snapped it up for $1.9 billion earlier this year. 

RELATED: Purdue Pharma's reformulated OxyContin may not curb opioid abuse, FDA panel says 

With the expanded team, Attralus will ramp up clinical development and “expand the company’s business plan,” according to the statement. 

Attralus is working on pan-amyloid removal treatments that bind to and remove amyloid in organs and tissues. The goal is to treat patients with all types and stages of systemic amyloidosis, a group of diseases in which amyloid proteins build up in different tissues, such as the heart, liver and digestive system. 

Approved treatments for amyloidosis target specific symptoms of different kinds of amyloidosis. They include Alnylam’s Onpattro and Akcea’s Tegsedi, for the treatment of polyneuropathy stemming from hereditary transthryretin (hATTR) amyloidosis, and Pfizer’s Vyndaqel, which treats cardiomyopathy from hereditary or wild-type ATTR amyloidosis.

In January, the FDA green-lighted Darzalex Faspro, a subcutaneous form of Johnson & Johnson’s cancer-fighting antibody daratumumab, for the treatment of AL amyloidosis in combination with three other drugs.