BRIEF—Cayuga Biotech appoints new chief executive

Andrea Ashford-Hicks has been appointed as chief executive officer of Cayuga Biotech, a New York-based biotech using biomimetic polyphosphate to address severe bleeding and wound healing.

With more than 20 years of experience, Ms Ashford-Hicks was formerly senior VP of late stage development at Enzyvant Therapeutics, guiding Rethymic (allogeneic processed thymus tissue–agdc) to US approval in pediatric congenital athymia.

She succeeds co-founder Damien Kudela, who will assume the role of chief scientific officer.

Ms Ashford-Hicks said: “Each year, nearly two million people die of hemorrhage, and I believe in the potential of this foundational technology to dramatically change outcomes across hemostasis-related clinical challenges.”

“Cayuga’s lead candidate already has demonstrated a survival benefit in pre-clinical studies and will enter the clinic later this year,” she added.