CymaBay Therapeutics Appoints Robert J. Wills, Ph.D. to Board of Directors
NEWARK, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 03/24/15 -- CymaBay Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBAY) today announced the appointment of Robert J. Wills, Ph.D., to the Company's Board of Directors.
"Rob brings to CymaBay over 35 years of pharmaceutical experience, including preclinical and clinical research and development, business development and strategic partnering," said Harold Van Wart, President and Chief Executive Officer of CymaBay. "As we continue to advance our two differentiated clinical assets, arfhalofenate in gout and MBX-8025 in high unmet need and orphan diseases, we expect his insight to be of significant value to the Company."
Dr. Wills commented, "CymaBay's novel therapies have tremendous potential for offering meaningful new treatments to patients. I look forward to working closely with the management team and other board members to help explore the best avenue for advancing these high-value assets."
Dr. Wills spent over 25 years at Johnson & Johnson, most recently as Vice President, Alliance Management, Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, before his retirement from the Company. He was responsible for managing strategic alliances for the Pharmaceutical Group worldwide, which included an active role in the negotiations of these alliances. Previously, he served as Senior Vice President Global Development, where he was responsible for the R&D pipeline and a member of the R&D Board of Directors. In addition he served on several of the commercial Operating Company Boards and key pharmaceutical group decision-making committees. Dr. Wills began his career at Hoffmann-LaRoche where he spent 10 years in several roles of scientific responsibility. Dr. Wills holds a B.S. in Biochemistry and an M.S. in Pharmaceutics from the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the University of Texas.
About CymaBay
CymaBay Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBAY) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing therapies to treat metabolic diseases with high unmet medical need, including serious rare and orphan disorders. Arhalofenate, the company's lead product candidate, has shown two therapeutic actions in a single drug in multiple Phase 2 gout studies. In gout patients, arhalofenate is intended to prevent painful flares in joints while at the same time promoting excretion of uric acid by the kidney, thereby addressing both the signs and symptoms of gout and the hyperuricemia that is the root cause of the disease. CymaBay's second product candidate, MBX-8025 is a potent, selective, orally active PPARδ agonist. A Phase 2 study of MBX-8025 in patients with mixed dyslipidemia established that it has an anti-atherogenic lipid profile. CymaBay is in the process of initiating a pilot study of MBX-8025 in patients with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia.
For additional information about CymaBay visit www.cymabay.com.
Contact:
Sujal Shah
CymaBay Therapeutics, Inc.
(510) 293-8800
investors@cymabay.com
Source: CymaBay Therapeutics
Released March 24, 2015