Enteris BioPharma Forms Scientific Advisory Board to Enhance Leadership in Oral Delivery of Peptide and Small Molecule Drugs

BOONTON, N.J., Dec. 3, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Enteris BioPharma, Inc., an industry leader in innovative oral dosage formulations, today announced the appointment of Steven J. Brickner, Ph.D., Jonathan Chernoff, MD, Ph.D., and Waleed Danho, Ph.D to the company's Scientific Advisory Board.

Highly regarded scientists and thought leaders, Drs. Brickner, Chernoff and Danho will work with Enteris' executive team to maximize the potential of its proprietary oral delivery technology platform and the development of orally delivered peptide and small molecule drugs.

Brian Zietsman, President and CFO of Enteris BioPharma, commented, "We are very honored to welcome such esteemed scientific minds as Drs. Brickner, Chernoff and Danho to our inaugural Scientific Advisory Board.  Already in the short time that Drs. Brickner, Chernoff and Danho have been advising our company and working with our proprietary oral delivery technology platform, they have provided invaluable input on potential development opportunities and therapeutic targets.  We greatly look forward to benefitting from their unparalleled acumen as Enteris seeks to become the industry leader in the oral delivery of peptides and difficult to deliver small molecule therapeutics."

With more than 100 combined years of industry and research experience, Drs. Brickner, Chernoff and Danho each offers areas of specialization that will help to shape Enteris' development strategy and therapeutic pursuits. 

Dr. Brickner joins Enteris' Scientific Advisory Board as an expert in synthetic organic/medicinal chemistry and the discovery of novel antibacterial agents.  While at Upjohn, Dr. Brickner was the co-inventor of Zyvox® (linezolid), an oxazolidinone that holds the #1 rank among all antibiotics in worldwide sales, exceeding $1.3 billion in 2012.  He also initiated the Upjohn research program and led the team that discovered linezolid and clinical candidates eperezolid and sutezolid. At Pfizer, he led the early clinical development team for sutezolid, which has completed Phase 2a trials as a potential treatment for MDR M. tuberculosis infections.  Currently the owner of SJ Brickner Consulting, LLC, Dr. Brickner holds an MS and Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Cornell University, and was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  He is author or co-author on 36 peer-reviewed publications and 80 scientific presentations, and is inventor/co-inventor on 23 issued US patents.

Dr. Brickner remarked, "I'm excited to be working with Enteris as a member of its SAB.  Enteris has a proven technology platform for improving oral bioavailability, and it holds significant potential for expanding the utility and market for certain anti-infective drugs that currently have poor oral bioavailability. As a drug discoverer and medicinal chemistry consultant with more than 30 years of experience working on the discovery of new antibiotics, I believe I can bring value to Enteris by sharing my broad anti-infective knowledge and drug-discovery expertise."

Dr. Chernoff is an internationally recognized expert in signal transduction, with particular interest in the regulation of cell proliferation and movement by protein kinases and phosphatases.  Currently the Chief Scientific Officer at the Fox Chase Cancer Center, Dr. Chernoff coordinates and charts the future course of research at the hospital, which he joined in 1991.  A molecular oncologist as well as a board-certified medical oncologist, Dr. Chernoff earned his MD and his Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1984 at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University Health Center of Pittsburgh, a clinical fellowship in medical oncology at Johns Hopkins Oncology Center and a clinical fellowship in hematology at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. He then held a postdoctoral fellowship in cellular and developmental biology at Harvard University before joining Fox Chase.  Dr. Chernoff has chaired numerous international meetings and serves as an editor for Molecular Cell Biology, as well as a frequent ad-hoc reviewer for many top-tier science journals.

Dr. Chernoff stated, "Working at one of the nation's forty-one NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, I have made a career in cancer research and treatment with the goal of improving therapies in solid tumors. Among its many differentiating factors, Enteris and its proprietary oral delivery technology platform offer the potential to greatly improve chemotherapy treatments by enabling a number of very effective cytotoxic and targeted agents that currently require IV administration to be delivered orally."

Dr. Danho joins Enteris as one of the foremost leaders in the discovery of peptide-based drugs, peptide mimetics, and conformationally restricted peptides.  Most recently the Distinguished Research Leader at Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., Dr. Danho currently serves as a council member of the American Peptide Society and is reviewer for the Journal of Peptide Research, QSAR & Combinatorial Science, as well as for the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry; he is a member of the editorial board of The International Journal of Peptide Research and Therapeutics. During his career, Dr. Danho authored and co-authored more than 250 scientific articles and 21 patents in the field of peptides and has presented and chaired various sections of the American, European and International Peptide Symposia since 1972.  Dr. Danho completed his Ph.D. in 1967 at the University of Aachen, Aachen, Germany in the laboratories of Professor Dr. mult. Helmut Zahn.  He went on to do post doctoral training at the Hormone Research Laboratory, University of California, San Francisco in the laboratories of Professor Dr. Choh Hao Li. 

Dr. Danho concluded, "As a scientist who has built his career researching peptides and peptide-based drugs, I can say with great confidence that Enteris' proprietary oral delivery technology platform is unlike any technology available today and has the ability to truly transform the way in which peptide therapeutics are developed and administered."  

Enteris' proprietary oral delivery technology is a clinically proven formulation technology that enables the oral delivery of BCS class II, III and IV peptide and small molecule compounds in a proprietary enteric-coated tablet formulation.  Enteris' proprietary oral delivery technology has demonstrated a unique track record of clinical success across a range of compounds and therapeutic indications, including a positive outcome pivotal Phase 3 trial.

About Enteris BioPharma
Enteris BioPharma, Inc. is a privately held, New Jersey-based biotechnology company offering innovative formulation solutions built around its proprietary drug delivery technologies.    Enteris' proprietary oral delivery technology has demonstrated a track record of clinical success across a range of compounds and therapeutic indications and has also been the subject of numerous feasibility studies and active development programs, several of which are in advanced stages of clinical development. For more information on Enteris BioPharma and its proprietary oral delivery technology, please visit http://www.EnterisBioPharma.com.

SOURCE Enteris BioPharma, Inc.