OREANDA-NEWS. Gelesis, a biotechnology company focussed on developing first-in-class products to safely induce weight loss and improve glycaemic control, today announced the appointment of David Pass, Pharm.D., as Chief Operating Officer. Dr. Pass will lead operations, including commercial planning, business development and all commercialization efforts.  His initial focus will be on Gelesis100, Gelesis' lead product candidate.

Dr. Pass joins Gelesis with more than 20 years of commercial expertise across multiple therapeutic areas with a focus on diabetes and metabolics. Dr. Pass gained a broad range of commercial experience from his time with Johnson & Johnson, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Most recently, Dr. Pass served as Vice President of Marketing at Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) for Diabetes, where he built a billion-dollar franchise. In this role, Dr. Pass also led the BI alliance with Eli Lilly & Company to develop and commercialise a portfolio of diabetes compounds in mid- and late-stage development.

"We are excited to have David onboard as we prepare for the potential launch of our first product, Gelesis100," said Yishai Zohar, Chief Executive Officer of Gelesis. "David brings invaluable commercial, strategic and business development experience across a broad range of therapeutic areas and has a proven track record of building successful franchises."

William Aschenbach, Ph.D., MBA, also joins Gelesis as the Vice President of Medical Affairs. Dr. Aschenbach brings with him 13 years of diverse research and development and medical affairs experience from his tenure as Scientific Director of U.S. Medical Affairs for EMD Serono. He also previously served as the Director of Global Medical Research at Biogen Idec, where he led global external research and medical communications efforts for the company's central nervous system franchise.

Gelesis is focussed on the development of novel therapies to induce weight loss and improve glycaemic control in people who are overweight or have obesity, including those with prediabetes and type 2 diabetes. Gelesis100, one of the company's product candidates and a first-in-class therapeutic, is currently being evaluated in a six-month pivotal study. Gelesis is also developing Gelesis200, created from the same proprietary technology platform as Gelesis100, as a product optimised to induce weight loss and improve glycaemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes.

The Gelesis executive and advisory teams comprise leading experts in obesity and its related comorbidities, clinical research and development and advanced biomaterials, including Caroline Apovian, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine; Louis J. Aronne, M.D., FACP, Director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Program at Weill Cornell Medicine, who also holds equity in Gelesis; Arne Astrup, M.D., Head of Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports at University of Copenhagen; Ken Fujioka, M.D., Director of the Nutrition and Metabolic Research Center and the Center for Weight Management at the Scripps Clinic; Allan Geliebter, Ph.D., Senior Attending Psychologist, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital; James Hill, Ph.D., Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, University of Colorado; Lee M. Kaplan, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Obesity, Metabolism and Nutrition Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital; Bennett Shapiro, M.D., Co-founder and Non-Executive Director at PureTech and former Executive Vice President of Research for Merck; and Angelo Tremblay, Ph.D., professor, Department of Kinesiology at Laval University.

PureTech Health (PureTech Health plc, PRTC.L) is a cross-disciplinary biotech company focussed on areas of growing scientific and technical insights that it believes are at an important inflection point, including the immune, central nervous and gastro-intestinal systems, and the interactions and signalling between them. PureTech has approximately 20 clinical studies across its pipeline targeting multi-billion dollar market opportunities, including five human proof-of-concept studies and multiple pivotal or registration study readouts expected in the next two years. While inevitably some technologies will not advance to commercialisation, PureTech's approach mitigates risk as most of the cash resides on a PureTech parent company level, allowing PureTech to build value and divert cash to its most successful programmes as milestones are achieved. PureTech has over 220 patents and patent applications. PureTech's leading team and board, along with an advisory network of more than 60 expert founder-scientists and advisors across multiple disciplines, gives PureTech access to potentially ground-breaking science and technological innovation. With healthcare undergoing major transformation, PureTech believes it is well positioned to develop and launch medicines for the 21st century.