Newport Beach’s jCyte Inc., a clinical-stage ophthalmology-focused biotech looking to treat a rare blinding disease via stem cell therapy, named Adrian Morris chief development officer.
Morris has over three decades of pharmaceutical industry experience in leadership roles, including launching breakthrough therapies that went on to become blockbuster assets for GlaxoSmithKline such as the first combination therapy for HIV, the first influenza antiviral (Relenza) and Advair, a global top five selling medication.
“My career evaluating the potential for novel medicines to transform patients’ lives, and guiding them through development to launch, made my decision to join jCyte very easy,” Morris said in a statement. “I believe jCell has extraordinary potential to transform the future for patients with retinitis pigmentosa and other retinal degenerative diseases.”
jCell is an investigational treatment for retinitis pigmentosa (RP) that has received FDA Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy designation and Orphan Drug designation.
The company has shaken up its executive team this year. Shannon Blalock, who also worked at GlaxoSmithKline for more than a decade, became CEO in February. Since then, he’s appointed five other top executives, including Samir Mody as chief commercial officer and Adam Walsh as chief financial officer.
Retinitis pigmentosa is a degenerative retinal disease that progressively destroys the rod and cone photoreceptors in the retina. It often strikes people in their teens, with many patients rendered legally blind by middle age. Worldwide, an estimated 1.9 million people suffer from the disease, including approximately 100,000 people in the U.S., making it the leading cause of inheritable blindness.
