On April 27, 2017 Rgenix, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing first-in-class small molecule and antibody cancer therapeutics, reported the appointment of Roger Waltzman, M.D., M.B.A. as its Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Waltzman brings more than 20 years of experience in oncology across the entire new drug development and approval process, including serving in various executive roles at Novartis for nearly a decade (Press release, Rgenix, APR 27, 2017, View Source [SID1234523089]).
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In his role, he will oversee clinical development at Rgenix, including clinical trial design and the new drug application process with regulators. He will also support Rgenix’s goals of providing a meaningful response for cancer patients lacking effective therapies by overseeing the patient experience.
"Dr. Waltzman has an extraordinary background in oncology, which is our focus at Rgenix, and his expertise will be crucial as we progress with the clinical development of our lead therapy, RGX-104, and our other drug candidates in development," said Masoud Tavazoie, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Rgenix. "We look forward to his contributions to our work at Rgenix as we develop novel treatments for patients who suffer from cancer types with a high, unmet need."
"Rgenix has innovation at its core, and I’m pleased to be joining an organization that is looking to fill a gap in oncology that could benefit hundreds of thousands of patients. I look forward to collaborating with the Rgenix team on its therapies and clinical developments as it looks to drive positive change in the industry," said Dr. Waltzman.
Prior to Rgenix, Dr. Waltzman worked at Novartis in both Medical Affairs and Clinical Development roles. In oncology, he successfully filed an sNDA as the Clinical Development Head for Tasigna/Glivec and led the successful development and MAA/NDA filing of Jakavi/Jakafi, in collaboration with Incyte. His last position at Novartis was as Global Development Head for anti-malarials, where he continued Phase 2 development of two novel anti-malarials and facilitated a cost-saving Collaboration Agreement with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Medicines for Malaria Venture.
His most recent position was with Jaguar Animal Health and Napo Pharmaceuticals in San Francisco where he was the Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Medical Officer, leading the development of a first-in-class, FDA-approved botanical as a novel anti-diarrheal.
Dr. Waltzman received his medical degree from Brown University School of Medicine and his MBA from Columbia Business School. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Harvard’s Beth Israel Hospital, and his fellowship in hematology/oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He has been a member of the board of directors of GoDocGo and the Brown Medical Alumni Association since 2015.