Weeks into first approval, Cara waves goodbye to founding CEO in favor of board member

03 Nov 2021
endpts.com
A biotech’s first drug approval is a process often years in the making and a crowning achievement for founder-CEOs who have run the race from the beginning. After 17 years watching Cara Therapeutics grow to a commercial brand, this biotech’s founding CEO is now ready to move on to his next phase. Cara has appointed Christopher Posner, a current board member and former CEO of Leo Pharma’s US branch, as its next leader, replacing founding CEO Derek Chalmers, the company said Wednesday. Chalmers will move over into a senior advisory role, with Posner set to take on the mantle Nov. 9. Chalmers founded Cara way back in 2004 and has served as CEO ever since, watching the biotech cross the FDA finish line for the first time in August with Korsuva (difelikefalin), a novel kappa opioid receptor agonist injection to treat severe-to-moderate pruritus, or itching, in patients with chronic kidney disease undergoing dialysis. Prior to Cara, Chalmers co-founded Arena Pharmaceuticals and served as its VP and executive director from June 1997 until May 2004. Previously, he was a group leader at Neurocrine Biosciences. Chalmers had this to say about his departure: Meanwhile, Posner most recently served as president and CEO of Leo Pharma, the US affiliate of Leo Pharma A/S, and previously was head of worldwide commercial operations at R-Pharma-US, a specialty pharma in the oncology and chronic immune disorder space. Before that, Posner held senior management roles in commercial and marketing operations at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Endo. Posner will take the helm as Cara and partner Vifor Pharma prep a Q1 launch for Korsuva. As part of the partners’ commercialization agreement in the US, Cara and Vifor will split profits 60-40 in dialysis clinics not owned by Fresenius Medical Care, the clinical care arm of the larger Vifor Fresenius Medical Care Renal Pharma business. Meanwhile, in Fresenius clinics, the companies will split profits 50-50. In a conversation with Endpoints News in April 2020, Chalmers indicated Fresenius clinics represented around 38% of the market. The agency based its review on two Phase III trials, KALM-1 and KALM-2, with the latter study showing 54% of patients dosed with Korsuva posted a 3-point or greater improvement from baseline in the weekly mean of the 24-hour Worst Itch Intensity Numeric Rating Scale (WI-NRS) score compared with 42% on placebo. The drug’s data package included results from an additional 32 trials.
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