SINGAPORE AND DENVER, COLORADO, 20 December 2019

After serving as Chairman since 2012, Dr. Claude Nash will step down but continue to serve as a Board Director. 

Mr. Zakrzewski currently serves as a director of several publicly held companies: Acceleron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: XLRN), Amarin Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AMRN) and Sangamo Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SGMO). In addition, he serves on the boards of a number of privately held companies. Among a number of CEO and executive roles in the biotech, venture capital and pharmaceutical industries, Mr. Zakrzewski has served in two senior roles for lipid-based therapeutic companies with significant relevance to Cerecin.

He was Chairman and CEO of Amarin Corporation during which Vascepa®, a lipid-based drug, was successfully developed and launched. As indicated, he continues to serve on the Board of Directors of Amarin. Mr. Zakrzewski also served as Chief Operating Officer of Reliant Pharmaceuticals during the period when Omacor®/Lovaza®, another lipid-based drug, was successfully developed and launched, leading to its 2007 acquisition by GlaxoSmithKline. In addition, Mr Zakrzewski spent 17 years with Eli Lilly & Company in a variety of executive roles in R&D, manufacturing, finance and business development. His most recent role was in Corporate Business Development where he had global responsibility for all licensing activities. 

Charles Stacey, President and CEO of Cerecin commented, “We are very pleased to have Joe join as Cerecin’s Chairman of the Board. He brings highly relevant experience in the development of lipid-based drugs for areas of significant unmet clinical need. His expertise and knowledge will be of tremendous value to our lead program, CER-0001 (tricaprilin), which we are developing for Alzheimer’s disease.” Dr. Stacey, continued, “The Board of Directors and I are very grateful to Dr. Claude Nash for his remarkable contribution to Cerecin since 2012. His guidance and leadership have been invaluable to the Company and have contributed to our successes to date. We are glad to have his continued input and guidance as a Board Director.” 

Mr Joseph Zakrzewski, the new Chairman of the Board of Directors of Cerecin said, “Cerecin is a very promising company with an exciting lead program addressing a large need and market opportunity, Alzheimer’s disease. As CER-0001 enters Phase 3, I am pleased to contribute my experience in this area to help navigate the final stages of development, approval and ultimately commercialization. I look forward to working with Cerecin’s strong management team and experienced Board to build a highly innovative brain health company.”