ADARx Pharmaceuticals Appoints Donald Fong as Chief Medical Officer to Lead RNA Therapeutics Pipeline
核心洞察
ADARx Pharmaceuticals (搜索) has appointed Donald Fong, M.D., as Chief Medical Officer to lead clinical development strategy and execution for its next-generation RNA therapeutics pipeline.
Dr. Fong brings over 25 years of clinical development expertise across multiple therapeutic areas including rare disease, ophthalmology, immunology, infectious disease, oncology and metabolic conditions.
The appointment strengthens ADARx's leadership as the company advances ongoing Phase 3 and Phase 2 clinical trials for its RNA-targeted therapeutic candidates.
ADARx Pharmaceuticals (搜索), a late-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation RNA therapeutics, has appointed Donald Fong, M.D., as Chief Medical Officer to spearhead the advancement of its clinical-stage pipeline. The appointment positions Dr. Fong to lead ADARx's clinical development strategy and execution, including ongoing Phase 3 and Phase 2 clinical trials and other clinical programs.
Extensive Clinical Development Experience
Dr. Fong brings more than 25 years of deep expertise in clinical development and operations across the biotech and healthcare industry. He has demonstrated a track record of advancing innovative therapies from early- through late-stage clinical development across a range of therapeutic areas including rare disease, ophthalmology, immunology, infectious disease, oncology and metabolic conditions. His experience extends to building and leading multi-specialty medical and clinical development organizations.
"Don is a highly respected physician and leader with deep expertise spanning clinical practice, clinical development, and operational execution across the biotech and healthcare industry," said Dr. Zhen Li, President and Chief Executive Officer of ADARx. "With early- through late-stage clinical development success, Don brings an end-to-end clinical perspective that will be invaluable as we advance our broad pipeline and execute our strategy. We are thrilled to welcome him to the leadership team."
Previous Leadership Roles
Prior to joining ADARx, Dr. Fong most recently served as Chief Medical Officer of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, where he led the clinical development of a broad therapeutic pipeline including plasma kallikrein inhibitors (搜索) for the treatment of hereditary angioedema (搜索) (HAE) and diabetic macular edema (搜索). Before BioCryst, Dr. Fong served as vice president of ophthalmology clinical development at Annexon Biosciences (搜索), where he advanced the company's asset to Phase 3 trials in geographic atrophy (搜索) (GA).
Dr. Fong also founded the clinical trials division at Kaiser Permanente Southern California (搜索) (KPSC) that oversaw trials for all medical and surgical specialties and advanced KPSC's oncology group to become a leading national site. He created and led KP's tele-ophthalmology/telemedicine program and served as a clinical professor at the KP School of Medicine.
Regulatory and Academic Background
Dr. Fong has served as an advisor to numerous U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committees, in addition to serving as chair of the FDA's Dermatologic and Ophthalmic Drugs Advisory Committee. He completed his residency and fellowship at Harvard Medical School, and received his M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Fong received his M.D. from UT Health San Antonio and his B.A. from Pomona College.
ADARx's RNA Technology Platform
"I am excited to join ADARx and support the continued advancement of its robust pipeline of clinical-stage, next-generation siRNA therapeutics (搜索)," said Dr. Fong. "ADARx has built a compelling technology platform with the potential to address significant unmet needs. I look forward to collaborating with the team to advance multiple programs through clinical development and help realize the full potential of ADARx's RNA technology for patients."
ADARx has developed technology to control the expression of specific disease drivers with highly selective RNA targeted therapies with the goal of delivering life-changing treatments for patients with urgent unmet medical needs. The company is focused on advancing and expanding a deep pipeline of highly potent, durable and selective RNA-targeted therapeutic candidates, developing product candidates for the treatment of complement-mediated, genetic, cardiovascular, thrombosis, central nervous system and metabolic (obesity) diseases.
In addition to its wholly-owned programs, ADARx has entered into a collaboration and license option agreement with AbbVie (搜索) to develop small interfering RNA (siRNA) therapeutics across multiple disease areas, including neuroscience, immunology and oncology.