ACELYRIN, INC. Scales for Continued Late-Stage Growth with The Appointment of Dr. Shephard Mpofu as Senior Vice President of Development

Veteran drug developer and prior CMO from Novartis AG gene therapies brings decades of clinical experience including long tenure as Global Lead for secukinumab, which he advanced from early development through to approvals across multiple indications including Psoriasis, Psoriatic Arthritis, Axial Spondyloarthritis and Hidradenitis Suppurativa

Strong complement to ACELYRIN’s current team and robust portfolio with multiple upcoming milestones that include Phase 2b/3 top-line data for izokibep in PsA and proof-of-concept for lonigutamab in thyroid eye disease, each expected before end of Q1 2024

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ACELYRIN, INC. (Nasdaq: SLRN), a late-stage clinical biopharma company focused on accelerating the development and delivery of transformative medicines in immunology, today announced the appointment of Shephard (Shep) Mpofu, MD, MRCP, FRCP as Senior Vice President of Development. Dr. Mpofu will be responsible for leading clinical development as well as translational sciences and will also join the company’s Senior Leadership Team.

“I am delighted to welcome Shep to our leadership team as we continue to scale for the advancement of our robust clinical pipeline of multiple programs across several indications,” said Dr. Lin. “Shep is an internationally recognized immunologist and rheumatologist as well as an esteemed colleague. Importantly, his prior experience guiding secukinumab through all phases of clinical development to multiple global approvals will be immensely valuable as we advance our next generation IL-17A inhibitor, izokibep.”

Dr. Mpofu joins ACELYRIN after nearly 20 years at Novartis AG, where he most recently served as Chief Medical Officer for its Gene Therapy Franchise. Prior to this role, he held positions of increasing responsibility in the immunology, rheumatology, and dermatology franchise, which culminated with global leadership of clinical development for canakinumab and secukinumab. Dr Mpofu is a United Kingdom General Medical Council Board-certified rheumatologist, who previously practiced at several institutions in the United Kingdom (UK) prior to joining industry. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians UK, and he obtained his MBChB (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees) from the Godfrey Huggins School of Medicine at the University of Zimbabwe.