Acasti Pharma appoints two cardiologists, professors to scientific advisory board
Acasti Pharma appointed Barry A. Franklin, PhD, and Robert Hegele, MD, to the company’s scientific advisory board.
Acasti Pharma, based in Quebec, Canada, is developing CaPre, a krill-based omega-3 phospholipid to treat patients with severe hypertriglyceridemia.
Franklin is the director of preventive cardiology and cardiac rehabilitation at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan. He is also a professor at Oakland University, Wayne State University and the William Beaumont School of Medicine.
Hegele is a professor at Western University and the director of the London Regional Genomics Center at Robarts Research Institute in London, Ontario, Canada.
In January, Acasti said it had submitted results of the Bridging Study for CaPre to the FDA. The company said it expects to meet with the FDA during the first quarter of 2017, discuss results of the study and ask for guidance on the developmental program and planned phase 3 trial evaluating CaPre in patients with severe hypertriglyceridemia.
The Bridging Study enrolled 56 healthy volunteers who were randomized to receive CaPre or Lovaza, an FDA-approved drug for hypertriglyceridemia. In September, Acasti announced that the study had met its primary objective and found that the levels of omega-3 fatty acid seicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid were similar following administration of the two medications in patients who ate a high-fat meal.
Approximately three to four million people in the U.S. have severe hypertriglyceridemia, according to Acasti.
Executive Editor
Tim Casey joined TriMed Media Group in 2015 as Executive Editor. For the previous four years, he worked as an editor and writer for HMP Communications, primarily focused on covering managed care issues and reporting from medical and health care conferences. He was also a staff reporter at the Sacramento Bee for more than four years covering professional, college and high school sports. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from Georgetown University.