Aimmune Therapeutics Announces COO Howard Raff To Be Replaced

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Aimmune Therapeutics, Inc.
AIMT
, a biopharmaceutical company developing desensitization treatments for food allergies, today announced that Aimmune's Chief Operating Officer, Howard Raff, Ph.D., who joined the company as its second employee upon its 2011 founding as Allergen Research Corporation, will retire from his position on October 31, 2015. Dr. Raff will become a consultant for Aimmune, working on developing future product opportunities for food allergens. Aimmune expects to announce a new Chief Operating Officer, with substantial commercial experience, in the coming weeks. "Many of Aimmune's accomplishments to date, especially around our drug development and regulatory pathway, are direct results of Howie's rolling up his sleeves and making them happen," said Aimmune CEO Stephen Dilly, M.B.B.S., Ph.D. "I have had the pleasure of working with Howie for more than a decade, and I am delighted for him to take this opportunity, after getting us to a Phase 3-ready state, to move from day-to-day functions to a visionary role and explore other potential applications of our expertise to help food allergy patients. Everyone at Aimmune is grateful for Howie's contributions and appreciates the robust operations team he has assembled. I know that he is looking forward to working closely with our new COO to transition effectively when that individual comes on board." Aimmune has also enhanced the capabilities of its clinical team with the additions of Brian Vickery, M.D., and Sean Bennett, M.D., Ph.D., as Senior Medical Directors in the United States and Andrea Vereda, M.D., Ph.D., as Medical Affairs Director for Europe. Dr. Vickery, who is board-certified in allergy and immunology and completed a fellowship in allergy and clinical immunology at Yale University, will also be an Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at UNC and at Duke University, Dr. Vickery worked closely with Dr. Wesley Burks, a leading expert on food allergy. Dr. Bennett, a pediatrician who earned his M.D. and Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the University of Colorado, joined Aimmune from Gilead Sciences, where he focused on pediatric development programs. Dr. Vereda, an allergist who earned her M.D. and Ph.D. at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and received additional training and conducted research in allergy at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City, has also collaborated with the World Allergy Organization on global projects. "Brian, Sean and Andrea all bring key understanding and experience to our clinical team, and each contributes a unique perspective as we prepare to launch our Phase 3 clinical trial for AR101," said Aimmune's Chief Medical Officer, Robert Elfont, M.D., Ph.D. "In addition to seeing and treating food allergy patients, Brian has worked extensively with academic clinical trials, including as the lead investigator for the ongoing DEVIL (Determining the Efficacy and Value of Immunotherapy on the Likelihood of Peanut Tolerance) study. Sean is the ideal biotech complement, with deep experience leading global cross-functional teams for several compounds through the various phases of clinical development. And Andrea has performed important research and investigated issues with leading allergists around the world. Our team is excited to apply our collective expertise to advance the development of much-needed treatments for food allergy sufferers."
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