Abide Therapeutics Appoints Richard N. Kender to Board of Directors

SAN DIEGO, Jan. 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Abide Therapeutics announced today the appointment of Richard N. Kender to its Board of Directors. Kender is a consultant to biotechnology companies in the areas of partnerships and licensing and mergers and acquisitions. He was previously Senior Vice President of Business Development and Corporate Licensing at Merck & Co., Inc. During his career at Merck, Kender was actively involved in more than 100 transactions, including a number that greatly influenced the course of the company. Kender also held positions with Merck in corporate finance, as well as in financial support of the domestic and international commercial and manufacturing divisions.

"With his deep expertise in multiple facets of the pharmaceutical business, Rich will be an asset to Abide's Board of Directors," said Alan Ezekowitz, MBChB, D.Phil., President and CEO of Abide Therapeutics. "We are confident that Rich will contribute to shaping our corporate and commercial efforts to most effectively advance our clinical pipeline of first-in-class therapeutics."

In July 2015, Abide began enrollment in its first clinical study, a Phase 1a clinical study of ABX-1431, an investigational endocannabinoid system modulator with potential indications in symptomatic improvement in multiple sclerosis, neuroinflammation, acute and chronic pain, agitation in Alzheimer's disease, and pain in irritable bowel syndrome.

"Abide Therapeutics is leading the development of a novel and relatively unexplored class of therapeutics targeting serine hydrolases," said Kender. "I look forward to joining the Board of Directors and helping Abide take advantage of their unique position to develop novel therapies to treat a number of unmet medical needs."

Kender currently serves on the boards of INC Research (INCR), a leading global contract research organization; Seres Therapeutics, developing microbiome-based therapeutics; and POXEL SA, developing drugs to treat type 2 diabetes. Kender obtained his B.S. in accounting from Villanova University and his MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

About Serine Hydrolases

The large family of serine hydrolases are validated but largely underexplored as drug targets. These enzymes play a key regulatory role in human physiological processes, such as regulating CNS signaling, digestion, metabolism, inflammation, blood clotting, and life cycle of viruses and pathogens. Thus, the ability to target serine hydrolases has broad therapeutic applications. The proprietary Abide technology platform provides a unique highly selective small molecule collection that specifically targets the common catalytic site of serine hydrolases. The technology provides a rapid and effective method for target identification and validation. 

About Abide Therapeutics

Abide Therapeutics is focused on developing innovative medicines that target serine hydrolases, one of the largest enzyme classes in nature with validated but mostly untapped therapeutic potential. Serine hydrolases play important regulatory roles in human physiology and disease. Abide has created a proprietary platform, based on technology developed at The Scripps Research Institute by Professors Ben Cravatt and Dale Boger, that specifically targets serine hydrolases with selective small molecules. The ability to target and modulate serine hydrolases has potential to develop new medicines in many therapeutic areas. Abide is located in San Diego. To learn more, visit www.abidetx.com. 

SOURCE Abide Therapeutics

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