InteKrin Therapeutics Appoints Linda Slanec Higgins, PhD Chief Operating Officer
LOS ALTOS, Calif., Sept. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- InteKrin Therapeutics Inc. announced today that Linda Slanec Higgins, PhD has been named Chief Operating Officer. Since late 2007, Dr. Higgins has served as InteKrin's Chief Scientific Officer after joining the Company earlier that year. Over the past two years, Dr. Higgins has had increasingly broad operational and strategic responsibility in key areas including CMC and dosage form development, Regulatory Affairs, Corporate Development and Product Development.
"Linda's contributions to InteKrin's progress have been extraordinarily impactful and decisive," said Denny Lanfear, InteKrin Chief Executive. "By large measure, her leadership and capabilities have allowed us to move INT131 forward in many dimensions over the past two plus years and successfully surmount the considerable challenges confronting privately funded development stage companies."
"I am very pleased to have contributed to the advancement of this important therapeutic," said Dr. Higgins. "We at InteKrin look forward to completing our Phase 2b efforts and moving on into Phase 3."
About INT131
INT131 is a next-generation insulin sensitizer currently in Phase 2b testing that addresses insulin resistance, a key etiological feature in the onset and subsequent progression of type 2 diabetes. Treating and improving insulin sensitivity in diabetic patients by activating PPAR-gamma is an important therapeutic tool for physicians, providing powerful glucose control and durability of effect. As a SPPARM, INT131 selectively modulates PPAR-gamma, thereby enabling the separation of PPAR gamma anti-diabetic efficacy from the well recognized TZD side effects.
About InteKrin (www.InteKrin.com)
InteKrin Therapeutics is a privately-held clinical-stage drug development company focused on diabetes, obesity and metabolic disease. InteKrin's business strategy is to build a robust portfolio of high value products by in-licensing clinical-stage therapeutic candidates that address significant unmet medical needs and rapidly move them through critical development stages. InteKrin's team of world-class scientific and medical experts includes veterans from several successful BioPharma organizations, internationally recognized experts in nuclear receptors and metabolism, top scientists formerly with the Food and Drug Administration and key clinical and commercialization leaders.