Industry leaders join Renova Therapeutics to lead preclinical programs into clinical development

May 2, 2017

San Diego, CA – Renova™ Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing gene and peptide therapies for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, today announced that Waldemar Radziszewski, MD, Ph.D., and Peter Gengo, Ph.D., have joined the company to lead preclinical product development and translation into clinical programs to advance the Renova Therapeutics portfolio. Dr. Radziszewski joins Renova Therapeutics as Executive Vice President of Translational Research, and Dr. Gengo joins as Vice President of Preclinical Research and Pharmacology.

Dr. Radziszewski will be responsible for leading post-discovery preclinical product development and translation into clinical studies to advance the Renova Therapeutics product portfolio. Most recently, Dr. Radziszewski served as Vice President, Immunology Development Unit and Site Head, Biopharmaceuticals Clinical Development, at Sandoz – a division of Novartis – in Princeton, NJ.

Prior to this role, he spent 18 years in various senior leadership positions within Merck Research Laboratories and later Johnson & Johnson companies, including Janssen Research & Development, managing clinical operations and multiple early- and late-stage clinical development projects with small molecules, therapeutic proteins and peptides in diverse therapeutic areas. Dr. Radziszewski has a strong track record of leading projects from concept to execution. He reports to Roy Cosan, President of Renova Therapeutics.

In his role, Dr. Gengo will direct and execute all preclinical goals and objectives for the company’s stresscopin-based product candidate program, including but not limited to RT-400 for Acute Decompensated Heart Failure. He will also manage post-discovery preclinical research and pharmacology studies to develop and advance the portfolio.

An accomplished biochemical analytical pharmacologist with extensive in vivo and in vitro knowledge and experience in drug discovery and early drug development, Dr. Gengo brings to Renova Therapeutics more than 30 years of research and leadership experience in large and small pharmaceutical companies, most recently in the Cardiovascular & Metabolic Disease unit at Merck & Co. Prior to Merck, Dr. Gengo spent several years with Johnson & Johnson companies, including Janssen Pharmaceuticals as Senior Director and Research Fellow. He reports to Dr. Radziszewski.

Both Dr. Radziszewski and Dr. Gengo worked on the stresscopin development program for acute heart failure while at Janssen, leading the team along with Dr. Nigel Shankley, cardiovascular and metabolic expert and consultant to Renova Therapeutics. The investigational new drug (IND) for stresscopin was transferred from Janssen to Renova Therapeutics in February, and the company plans to advance development of the stresscopin program as RT-400, a peptide infusion treatment for episodes of Acute Decompensated Heart Failure (ADHF).

“The addition of Dr. Radziszewski and Dr. Gengo to our team reiterates Renova Therapeutics’ commitment to advancing our therapies to address unmet patient needs in the cardiovascular and metabolic disease space,” says Jack W. Reich, Ph.D., CEO and Co-founder of Renova Therapeutics. “Our new colleagues are outstanding scientists who, along with Dr. Shankley, represent the core of the team that originally developed stresscopin at Janssen. This combined experience will be instrumental in advancing our RT-400 ADHF peptide therapy.”

Dr. Radziszewski received both his MD and his Ph.D. from Nicolas Copernicus Academy of Medicine in Krakow, Poland, now known as Jagiellonian University Medical College in Krakow. He was Adjunct Assistant Professor within the Department of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and in parallel worked as a physician in the Clinical Pharmacology Ward, Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Nicolas Copernicus Academy of Medicine in Krakow. Dr. Radziszewski trained and conducted basic cardiovascular research at prominent research institutions in Poland, Finland, the UK and the US. He completed a Fogarty Foundation post-doctoral research fellowship in pharmacology in the Department of Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Medicine. He then trained in anatomic and clinical pathology in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA. Dr. Radziszewski is an author of numerous research publications and is a member of the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association.

Dr. Gengo earned his Ph.D. at the University of Buffalo in Amherst, NY, graduating summa cum laude. He received his Bachelor of Science in Biology from the State University of New York in Geneseo, NY, graduating magna cum laude. He also received a Medical Technology Degree & License (MT, ASCP) at the School of Medical Technology at Rochester General Hospital in Rochester, NY. Dr. Gengo is author on several patents – cardiovascular, central nervous system, pain, and metabolic disease. He has published numerous peer-reviewed research publications and book chapters and is a member of several scientific societies. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Cardiology at North Carolina State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

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