Neurophth Therapeutics Appoints Xiaoning Guo as Chief Medical Officer

SHANGHAI and SAN DIEGO, June 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Neurophth Therapeutics, Inc., (hereinafter referred to as "Neurophth") today announced the appointment of Xiaoning Guo, Ph.D., as the Chief Medical Officer (CMO). Dr. Xiaoning Guo will have overall responsibility for the drug development function, including clinical development, medical, and pipeline management.

Dr. Guo has over 20 years of experiences in drug discovery and development in the healthcare industry, including 10 years' clinical development and portfolio management experiences in R&D in multinational pharmaceutical companies and global CRO. He joins Neurophth from SciClone Pharmaceuticals, where he served as Head of R&D and Chief Medical Officer, leading the development of several drugs and clinical work. Prior to joining SciClone Pharmaceuticals, he was the deputy general manager, the head of clinical development and regulatory affairs at General Regeneratives (Shanghai) Limited. He held key leadership positions in drug discovery and development at AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Covance, leading multiple global R&D projects.

Dr. Guo received his PhD in Pharmacology from the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his BSc in Chemistry from Nanjing University. He is also a member of American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO) and Chinese Pharmacological Society (CPS).

"I'm delighted to welcome Dr. Guo on behalf of the whole company." said Prof. Bin Li, Founder, Chairman and CEO at Neurophth, "The IND application of our core product NR082 has been approved by both NMPA and FDA, and we poised to carry out phase III clinical trial in China and phase I in US. At this critical juncture, Dr. Guo will make a great addition to Neurophth executive team, bringing his profound global clinical experiences, deep medical expertise, and outstanding leadership. We look forward to his partnership in enhancing our capabilities and efficiency in clinical development, optimizing our pipeline strategy, and staging the new initiatives in our strategic development."

Dr. Guo, Chief Medical Officer suggested that "Neurophth has been in the forefront of gene therapy for ocular disease. I shared the same vision of making meaningful changes through innovative gene therapy and I'm looking forward to joining the endeavor with the whole team in accelerating the global clinical development of gene therapy, delivering on our commitment, and contributing to our goal of becoming the world's leading gene therapy company."

About Neurophth

Neurophth is China's leading in-vivo gene therapy company for ophthalmic diseases. With subsidiaries in China (Wuhan, Shanghai, and Suzhou) and US (San Diego, California), Neurophth, a fully integrated company, is striving to discover and develop genomic medicines for patients suffering from genetic diseases globally. Our validated AAV platform, which has been published in Nature - Scientific Reports, Ophthalmology, and EBioMedicine, has successfully delivered proof-of-concept investigator-initiated trials data of 186 subjects with investigational gene therapies in the retina. Our most advanced investigational gene therapy drug candidate, NR082 (rAAV2-ND4), in development for the treatment of mtND4-mediated LHON, has been granted orphan drug designation (ODD) by the U.S. FDA, an integrated Phase 1/2/3 clinical trial has been initiated with the first patient dosed in June 2021 after the IND clearance by the China NMPA in March 2021, and US IND has recently been cleared by US FDA. The pipeline also includes mtND1-mediated LHON (the Company's 2nd US ODD), autosomal dominant optic atrophy, optic neuroprotection, vascular retinopathy, and five other preclinical candidates. Neurophth has scaled up in-house manufacturing capability in Suzhou facility utilizing single-use technologies to support future commercial demand. To learn more about us and our growing pipeline, visit www.neurophth.com.