BOSTON, Oct. 03, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cerevance, a private, clinical-stage drug discovery and development company focused on central nervous system (CNS) diseases, today announced the appointment of Ottavio V. Vitolo, M.D. as chief medical officer. Dr. Vitolo brings more than 20 years of experience in neuroscience research and drug development. He joins Cerevance to lead the global clinical development and regulatory operations.

“We are thrilled to welcome Ottavio whose expertise will help advance our broad portfolio of innovative treatments for neurodegenerative diseases,” said Craig Thompson, chief executive officer of Cerevance. “His diverse and extensive experience in translational and clinical research will be an invaluable asset as we strategically advance our pipeline into and through the clinic.”

Dr. Vitolo most recently served as chief medical officer and global head of R&D at Alcyone Therapeutics. Prior to this position, Dr. Vitolo served as senior vice president, head of R&D and chief medical officer at Relmada Therapeutics Inc. While at Relmada, he critically contributed to the company’s growth and strategy, including leading the successful initiation and completion of dextromethadone clinical studies.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Vitolo was vice president of clinical development at Homology Medicines and held positions of increasing responsibilities at Pfizer, including senior director and head of neuromuscular clinical research, research project lead, global clinical lead and medical director in the neuroscience research unit.

Dr. Vitolo is a trained and practicing neuropsychiatrist. After receiving his medical degree from the University of Rome La Sapienza, he completed his psychiatry residency at Washington University in St. Louis and completed a fellowship in behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Vitolo also has a Master of Medical Sciences degree from Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Vitolo stated, “I am delighted to join Cerevance at such a pivotal time in the company’s history. The potential of the NETSseq target discovery platform combined with the broad pipeline creates a tremendous opportunity to bring several novel and potentially transformative therapies to patients.”

About Cerevance

Cerevance is a private pharmaceutical company whose lead therapeutic, CVN424, a first-in-class, oral, non-dopaminergic compound acting on a novel target (GPR6), recently demonstrated significant and clinically meaningful efficacy in a 135-patient Phase 2 study in patients with Parkinson’s disease. The company uses its proprietary NETSseq technology platform to highly selectively identify novel target proteins that are either over- or under-expressed in diseased brains. Partnering with over 20 brain banks and evaluating more than 11,000 human post-mortem brain tissue samples, Cerevance is advancing a robust pipeline of targeted treatments for patients with neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. For additional information, please visit www.cerevance.com.

Contacts

Cerevance:
Johnna Simoes, ir@cerevance.com

Media:
Andrew Mielach, amielach@lifescicomms.com, +1-646-876-5868