uniQure Announces Leadership Addition to Support Advancement of Clinical Programs

~ Walid Abi-Saab, M.D., appointed Chief Medical Officer, will bring extensive track record in leading drug development and execution ~

LEXINGTON, Mass. and AMSTERDAM, June 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- uniQure N.V. (NASDAQ: QURE), a leading gene therapy company advancing transformative therapies for patients with severe medical needs, today announced the appointment of Walid Abi-Saab, M.D., as Chief Medical Officer, effective immediately. He will report to Matt Kapusta, Chief Executive Officer of uniQure, and will be based in the Company’s Basel, Switzerland office. Dr. Abi-Saab will be responsible for leading all clinical research and development, regulatory affairs, medical affairs, and program management at uniQure.

With Dr. Abi-Saab’s appointment, Dr. Ricardo Dolmetsch becomes President and Chief Scientific Officer. He will continue to lead all research, non-clinical research, and vector and enabling technology.
   
“As we advance the clinical development of AMT-130 in Huntington’s disease and move additional gene therapy programs into the clinic, including AMT-260 in refractory temporal lobe epilepsy and AMT-162 in SOD1 ALS, it is critical that we expand our clinical development expertise in the company,” stated Mr. Kapusta. “Dr. Abi-Saab is a proven biopharma executive with more than 20 years of experience in global drug development. Under his leadership, more than 30 molecules have advanced through clinical development leading to several approvals in the US, EU and Canada. I am happy to welcome Walid to the uniQure leadership team at this exciting time for the Company as we advance our clinical programs for Huntington’s disease and other serious diseases.”

“I am very excited to join uniQure at this very promising moment for the Company,” stated Dr. Abi-Saab. “uniQure has been a leader in gene therapy for 25 years and I’m particularly impressed by their recent success in hemophilia B and pioneering work in Huntington’s disease. I look forward to joining the team as the Company advances the clinical development of AMT-130 and initiates additional clinical studies in the near future.”

Dr. Abi-Saab joins uniQure from the Belgium-based biopharmaceutical company Galapagos, where he served as Chief Medical Officer from 2017 through 2022. While at Galapagos, he expanded the company’s development organization and led the company through a critical and transformative phase, including the successful completion of the Phase 3 studies of filgotinib (Jyseleca) in rheumatoid arthritis and ulcerative colitis. Prior to joining Galapagos, he served as Group Vice President, Global Clinical Development at Shire, where he was responsible for the clinical development plans of all programs in the therapeutic area and oversaw the development of more than 10 marketed products and other programs in rare diseases and specialty pharma. He also has previously held leadership positions at Novartis, Abbott Laboratories, and Pfizer, and served as a resident, research fellow, and assistant professor at Yale University School of Medicine, where he completed Psychiatry residency training and a Neuroscience Research Fellowship. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in biology from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon and his M.D. at the Université Saint Joseph in Beirut.