BRIEF—FogPharma appoints new chief executive

Massachusetts, USA-based precision medicine company FogPharma has appointed Mathai Mammen as chairman, president and chief executive.

FogPharma is pursuing novel scientific research with the goal of tackling “challenging intracellular targets.”

The company aims to discover and develop “Helicon” therapeutics, small proteins capable of efficient cell entry.

Dr Mammen was formerly executive vice president of pharmaceuticals R&D at Johnson & Johnson and has had senior R&D roles at Merck & Co and Theravance.

Founder Gregory Verdine said the firm was preparing “to advance our first development candidate, FOG-001, a first-and-only-in-class direct TCF-blocking β-catenin inhibitor, into clinical development for cancer in 2023.”