Minovia Therapeutics appoints Maha Radhakrishnan, Chief Medical Officer at Biogen, as board member

TIRAT HACARMEL, Israel, Jan. 05, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Minovia Therapeutics (Minovia), a clinical-stage company focused on developing novel Mitochondrial Augmentation Technology (MAT) to fight mitochondrial diseases, has announced a Board appointment.

Maha Radhakrishnan, M.D., joins the board at a time in which the company advances clinical programs in primary mitochondrial diseases and hematological disorders associated with mitochondrial dysfunction. As a trained physician, Maha is a senior leader with extensive pharmaceutical and biotech experience covering clinical development, post-marketing regulatory activities, medical affairs, safety, and reimbursement requirements. Maha is the Chief Medical Officer of Biogen, and in her previous roles, she served as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Medical, Primary Care Business Unit at Sanofi, Senior Vice President and Head of Worldwide Medical at Bioverativ Therapeutics Inc., and Head of Europe & Canada Medical and US Medical at Biogen. She has also worked at Bristol Myers Squibb, Cephalon, and United Health Group before first joining Biogen in early 2013. 

Maha has significant experience across a broad range of therapeutic areas and disciplines, including the central nervous system (neurology and psychiatry), rheumatology and immunology, rare blood disorders, ophthalmology, cardiology, diabetes, and internal medicine. 

Natalie Yivgi Ohana, Co-Founder and CEO Minovia Therapeutics, said, "Mitochondrial diseases are often fatal and currently viewed as untreatable, something we are working relentlessly to change. So far twelve patients suffering Primary Mitochondrial Diseases were dosed with our Mitochondrial Augmentation Technology, both through compassionate use program and a Phase 1/2 trial in Israel. Minovia Invested greatly in research and development in the last two years, establishing strong scientific and GMP foundations, which will enable us to seek approval for Pearson Syndrome and expand to other disease areas. As board member at Minovia, we will be able to draw on Maha's considerable medical, regulatory and drug development expertise and experience in bringing successful treatments to patients with primary and secondary mitochondrial diseases."

Maha added: "Minovia is changing the way we look at mitochondrial therapies. They are on the precipice of meaningfully and measurably improving the lives of patients in need. I look forward to providing oversight and helping Minovia achieve its goals to approve their novel mitochondrial cell therapies in multiple disease areas."

The appointment of Maha as a board member follows on from Minovia's recent partnership with Astellas Pharma to develop novel Mitochondrial Cell Therapies, as well as the initial data publication in Science Translational Medicine (https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.abo3724).

Contact 
Info@minoviatx.com

About Minovia Therapeutics   
Minovia Therapeutics is a clinical stage company and the first to use a cell therapy approach to treat patients affected with mitochondrial diseases through its Mitochondrial Augmentation Technology (MAT) platform. MAT is being developed as a robust and scalable therapeutic platform targeting the root cause of diseases generated by mitochondrial dysfunction. The lead product, MNV-201 is composed of autologous hematopoietic stem cells enriched with healthy allogeneic mitochondria. Minovia's initial clinical focus is on rare mitochondrial diseases for which there are no approved treatments in the United States and the unmet medical need is immense. After completing an IND enabled phase I/II clinical trial in Pearson Syndrome, a fatal pediatric disease, Minovia is planning to accelerate the clinical development for Pearson Syndrome and expand the pipeline to other Hematological/Mitochondrial-related diseases. Harnessing the power of mitochondria, Minovia is committed to exploring the full potential of its proprietary platform to address mitochondrial diseases ranging from orphan indications to more common and age-related diseases. 

For more information, please visit?http://minoviatx.com/.