Prominent Neurosurgeon Joins Leucadia Therapeutics as Company's Founding Global Chief Medical Officer

Javed Siddiqi, who created neuroscience programs in multiple hospitals, brings skull base expertise as company readies preclinical studies to assess Arethusta^® effectiveness

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Leucadia Therapeutics, a company working to cure Alzheimer's disease, has hired a global chief medical officer practiced in skull base neurosurgery needed to implant the company's revolutionary Arethusta^® device, which drains disease-causing toxins from the brain.

Dr. Javed Siddiqi, MD, DPhil (Oxon), FRCSC, FACS, FAANS, a board-certified neurosurgeon who completed his doctorate at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and an MD in Canada, is an expert on the skull base. The skull base includes the cribriform plate that serves as a drain for cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that helps to clear toxic metabolites from regions of the brain where Alzheimer's disease emerges.

Widely regarded as an innovator, Siddiqi brings more than 21 years of surgical, administrative, academic, and leadership experience to Leucadia. In addition to founding the Desert Regional Medical Center's Institute of Clinical Orthopedics & Neuroscience in Palm Springs, California, he leads the Neurosurgery programs at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center and Riverside University Health System Medical Center. 

Siddiqi was the founding president of the Arrowhead Neuroscience Foundation, a non-profit research and education foundation committed to mitigating the individual and community after effects of common but devastating neurological conditions that alter brain and spinal cord function, including Alzheimer's disease.

He also serves as a Professor and Chair of Surgery at the California University of Science & Medicine in Colton, California, and Professor of Surgery at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California. He is founding Editor-in-chief of the medical journal "Contemporary Reviews in Neurology and Neurosurgery." 

Other than clinical and academic credibility, Siddiqi brings his national and international professional relationships to Leucadia: He is currently president of the California Association of Neurological Surgeons, the nation's largest state neurosurgical society. He is also vice president of the Western Neurosurgical Society, an international neurosurgery organization for western U.S. states and western Canadian provinces.

"Javed's unique expertise will help Leucadia Therapeutics take its next critical steps on our journey to cure Alzheimer's disease," said Dr. Doug Ethell, the company's CEO. "His first priority in coming months will be to oversee preclinical safety and efficacy studies of the Arethusta device."

Leucadia Therapeutics is a pre-clinical-stage company focused on diagnosing, treating and curing Alzheimer's disease. The company's proprietary Arethusta® medical device is designed to restore the flow of CSF through the cribriform plate to flush toxins away from the part of the brain where Alzheimer's disease first appears. The Arethusta implantation is easily reversible.

Leaucadia Therapeutics is taking a different approach to Alzheimer's disease, which afflicts 44 million people and nearly one in 10 people over 70. Over the past three decades, more than $30 billion has been invested in 2,300 clinical trials for medicines to treat the disease.  None were able to slow or halt its relentless progression. Studies suggest Leucadia's implantable device will prevent Alzheimer's disease from developing, and may even reverse it in people who already have it.

For more information, visit Leucadia Therapeutics.

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SOURCE Leucadia Therapeutics