Araim Pharmaceuticals Announces Appointment of Ferdinand C. Breedveld, M.D. as Chairman of the Board

TARRYTOWN, N.Y., Aug. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Araim Pharmaceuticals, a clinical stage pharmaceutical company, announced today that Ferdinand Breedveld, M.D. has been selected as the new Chairman of the Board, effective immediately. Dr. Breedveld will succeed Tony Cerami, Ph.D who has served as Chairman of the Board since founding the company in 2006. Dr. Cerami will remain involved with ARAIM Pharmaceuticals serving as Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee focusing his efforts on the scientific advancement of the Innate Repair Receptor (IRR) platform.

Dr. Breedveld brings over forty years of scholarly achievements in clinical research, service to patients, and executive leadership within Immunology, Rheumatology, and translational medicine. Dr. Breedveld served as the Head of Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands and as President of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR). Dr. Breedveld has authored over 900 peer reviewed scientific papers, and has received multiple awards including Honorary Member of EULAR and Master of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR).  Dr. Breedveld has served 10 years at the Drug Evaluation Committee of the Netherlands.

"I am very excited about the breadth of clinical potential in ARAIM's innate repair receptor platform and am impressed with the significant advances the company has made including three new orphan designations in the past nine months," stated Dr. Breedveld. "The proof of concept study with ARA 290, ARAIM's lead compound, evaluating the potential for disease modification through nerve generation, pain, and functional improvements, in neuropathy patients is also on schedule and results will be available later this year," continued Dr. Breedveld.

"As Founder and Chairman of ARAIM Pharmaceuticals, I am very pleased with our progress and the team we have put in place, therefore I feel this is an appropriate time for me to transfer stewardship to Dr. Breedveld. Dr. Breedveld was critical in the development of anti-TNF therapies and his expertise in clinical and regulatory development within immunology and rheumatology will enable our continued acceleration towards patients with ARAIM's novel, innate repair receptor platform," said Dr. Tony Cerami.

About Araim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Araim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a clinical stage drug development company with a novel platform technology designed to address devastating injuries and chronic diseases underserved by current therapies. With their discovery of the Innate Repair Receptor (IRR), Araim has identified the target for activating tissue repair and recovery from inflammatory and other injuries.   Their novel peptide library of IRR specific ligands activate tissue protective, reparative and anti-inflammatory signaling pathways. Araim has an ongoing, active and promising preclinical program in a wide array of conditions involving tissue injury and repair, including neuropathy, cardiovascular injury, diabetes complications, wound healing and aging. ARA 290 is a first-in-class synthetic 11-amino acid peptide IRR agonist. The most advanced clinical program with ARA 290 is in sarcoidosis-related small fiber neuropathy, with the recent completion of a Phase 2b dose-ranging trial.  A pilot study evaluating the safety and efficacy of ARA 290 in diabetic macular edema is currently ongoing at Queen's University Belfast. www.araimpharma.com

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SOURCE Araim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.