TEL AVIV, Israel and RALEIGH – RedHill Biopharma, a specialty biopharmaceutical company focused on gastrointestinal diseases, has tapped Dr. June S. Almenoff — a former executive at Furiex — as its next chief scientific officer.
Among her duties, she will be leading the charge for the potential commercial launch of the firm’s gastrointestinal drug, Talicia.
For years, the Israeli firm with headquarters in Raleigh and Tel Aviv, has been testing the drug as a treatment for Helicobacter pylori (H.pylori) infection, which cause stomach ulcers and sometimes cancer.
Dr. June Almenoff. Source: LinkedIn.
In addition, she will oversee the clinical development of RHB-204 for pulmonary nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) infections and the pivotal Phase 3 study planned to be initiated in the second half of 2019.
“I am pleased to step into the role of RedHill’s Chief Scientific Officer at this exciting stage, as we are approaching the potential approval of our lead drug candidate, Talicia,” Almenoff said in a statement. “I look forward to contributing both to the planned launch of Talicia as a potential new standard-of-care therapy for H. pylori infection and to the development of our promising late-stage clinical pipeline.”
She comes with more than 20 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry.
Among her various roles: president and chief medical officer of Furiex Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Actavis plc, now Allergan plc); and various positions at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), where she has recently served as a board member and advisor to numerous biopharma companies.
Other honors: receiving her B.A. cum laude from Smith College and graduating with AOA honors from the M.D.-Ph.D. program at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. She completed post-graduate medical training at Stanford University Medical Center (Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases) and served on the faculty of Duke University School of Medicine. She is an adjunct Professor at Duke, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, and has authored more than 50 publications.
RedHill was established in 2009 in Tel-Aviv and opened its U.S headquarters in Raleigh in 2017. It is a specialty biopharmaceutical company focused primarily on late clinical-stage development and commercialization of drugs to treat gastrointestinal diseases and cancer. RedHill’s shares are publicly traded on the Nasdaq stock market and the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange.
