Elliot Ehrich, M.D., who capped an 18-year career at Alkermes in January, has joined Expansion Therapeutics as its chief medical officer. The company closed a $55.3 million series A round in January to advance a pipeline targeting disease-driving RNAs.
At Alkermes, Ehrich was chief medical officer and headed up R&D in “in senior roles of increasing responsibility.” He oversaw the development of the opioid dependence drug Vivitrol and the antipsychotic Aristada, and directed Alkermes’ efforts on the development of partnered drugs Risperdal Consta and Bydureon. Before Alkermes, Ehrich spent seven years working on clinical development at Merck.
He comes to Expansion by way of 5AM Ventures, where he became a venture partner after leaving Alkermes. The VC firm led Expansion’s series A along with Kleiner Perkins, Novartis Venture Fund and Sanofi Ventures. At Expansion, Ehrich will be working to move small molecules for RNA-mediated diseases into the clinic.
“Elliot has been engaged in every aspect of bringing important medicines to patients globally from early discovery through approval,” said Expansion CEO Kevin Forrest, Ph.D., in a statement. “He will be instrumental as we grow our R&D organization operationally, and as we advance our scientific and clinical focus on small molecule medicines for expansion repeat disorders, a set of genetic diseases that currently have no satisfactory treatments.”
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Expansion is headquartered in San Diego but runs research facilities in Jupiter, Florida. Its pipeline is based on the work of Matt Disney, Ph.D., of The Scripps Research Institute Florida. Its initial focus is a class of about 30 genetic diseases called expansion repeat disorders. These include fragile X syndrome, spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy, Huntington’s disease and myotonic dystrophy. In these disorders, too many repeats in RNA sequences cause RNA to clump together in cells, preventing them from producing essential proteins.
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The company has two candidates targeting myotonic dystrophy in preclinical development, as well as two assets with undisclosed targets. Of the latter two, one is being developed for a nonexpansion repeat disorder.
“I am thrilled to join the Expansion Therapeutics team at this exciting time in the company’s development and growth,” Erich said in the statement. “Expansion’s RNA-targeting platform represents a paradigm shift and early laboratory data indicates that it has the potential to yield important new treatments for severe RNA-meditated diseases.”