David Hovland was tapped as chief regulatory officer, and Bryan Smith was brought on as general counsel and chief compliance officer for the $120 million-valued company (Nasdaq: ELDN). The new hires were announced this month.
Hovland was most recently senior vice president of global regulatory affairs and quality at Irvine-based urology-focused drugmaker Urovant Sciences Inc.
From 2010 to 2018, he held leadership positions in regulatory affairs for neurology, urology and dermatology at Allergan, which was previously based in Irvine and now has its aesthetics business headquartered there.
Smith also comes to Eledon from Urovant Sciences, where was general counsel for three years and oversaw the company’s 2018 initial public offering and recent $218 million sale to Sumitovant Biopharma.
In addition, he was previously chief counsel at Allergan and a litigator at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.
New CFO
Those two announcements followed another round of exec moves at the company in March.
In that flurry of hires, Paul Little was named chief financial officer. He previously headed finance at Sientra Inc. (Nasdaq: SIEN), where he led multiple public financing rounds. He was also chief operating officer at Candela Medical and oversaw financial and commercial operations at Allergan.
Jeff Bornstein, who counts leadership roles with Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Biogen, Gilead Sciences, was also appointed chief medical officer in March.
Nieto Ties
The additions follow a shift in direction for Eledon that took place last September.
The company, previously known as Novus Therapeutics Inc. and focused on ear infection medications, acquired Boston-based Anelixis Therapeutics LLC and turned its focus to ALS, diabetes and autoimmune diseases.
At the time of the acquisition, Eledon raised $108 million in a private placement deal to fund clinical and pre-revenue operations into 2023.
Anelixis got off the ground thanks to the work of Newport Beach’s Augie Nieto, the fitness industry icon who founded Rosemont, Ill.-based Life Fitness.
Nieto was diagnosed with ALS in 2005. He and his wife, Lynne, subsequently launched Augie’s Quest, which has since raised more than $160 million to fund research to find a cure for ALS.
Anelixis’ therapeutic main drug candidate, AT-1501, counts an antibody that has the ability to block an interaction between immune cells in the body that has been associated with delaying disease progression of ALS and other medical conditions.
David-Alexandre Gros, named CEO of Eldeon last year, previously said that “there would be no AT-1501 without Augie and Lynne Nieto and Augie’s Quest.”
