IRVINE, Calif., April 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- AtheroNova Inc.
(OTCBB:AHRO), a biotech company focused on the research and
development of compounds to safely regress atherosclerotic plaque
and improve lipid profiles in humans, today announced that
John Kastelein, MD, Ph.D., Chairman
of the department of vascular medicine and Strategic Chair of
Genetics in Cardiovascular Disease at the Academic Medicine Center
of the University of Amsterdam,
has joined the Company as a member of the Medical Advisory Board
and will be a Co-Principal Investigator in the Company's upcoming
clinical trials.
"We are pleased to announce that Dr. Kastelein has joined
AtheroNova in this very important advisory role as we continue to
expand our scientific and medical team essential for transition to
a clinical stage company," stated Thomas W.
Gardner, CEO of AtheroNova. "Dr. Kastelein's leadership in
the area of lipidology and his Lipid Research Clinic in
Amsterdam has been an integral
part of many atherogenesis studies including IDEAL, TNT, CAPTIVATE,
ENHANCE, ILLUMINATE, JUPITER and RADIANCE. We feel that
adding Dr. Kastelein to our esteemed team is significant in its
impact on the knowledge he will contribute to our clinical
efforts."
"Professor Kastelein is world renowned for his cutting edge
clinical care of cardiovascular patients and for his pioneering
clinical research activities that have contributed to a very
significant reduction in the ravages of cardiovascular disease in
this decade," commented Mark Wedel,
M.D., Chief Medical Officer of AtheroNova. "We are honored
that John will be bringing his talents and leadership to
AtheroNova's efforts to further improve the plight of
cardiovascular patients."
Dr. Kastelein is Professor of Medicine and chairman of the
Department of Vascular Medicine at the Academic Medical Center
(AMC) of the University of Amsterdam, where he holds the Strategic Chair
of Genetics of Cardiovascular Disease. He founded the Lipid
Research Clinic at the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam in 1989, which is currently serving
as a tertiary referral center for over 5000 patients each year and
has become part of the department of Vascular Medicine. He is
president of the Dutch Atherosclerosis Society (DAS) and chairs the
National Scientific Committee on Familial Hypercholesterolemia
(EHC). He also is a member of the Royal Dutch Society for Medicine
& Physics, the Council for Basic Science of the American Heart
Association and the European Atherosclerosis Society. He also is a
board member of the International Task Force for CHD Prevention and
was recently appointed to the Executive Board of the International
Atherosclerosis Society (IAS).
Dr. Kastelein's current research interests can be found in the
etiology, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of
hypertriglyceridemia, hypercholesterolemia and low HDL cholesterol,
all conditions associated with atherosclerosis and cardiovascular
disease. He has published over 530 research papers in peer
reviewed journals, including Nature Genetics, Lancet, New England
Journal of Medicine, JAMA and Circulation.
Recently, Dr. Kastelein has developed the use of non-invasive
B-mode ultrasound as well as Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (MRI)
studies of the carotid arteries for the diagnosis and assessment of
novel treatments for atherosclerosis. This has led to the
recognition of the AMC as the world-wide leading center for this
technique which has recently been exported to a substantial number
of academic sites throughout Europe. This has culminated in the launch of
NICE, Network of Imaging Centers in Europe, of which Dr. Kastelein is the
director. Dr. Kastelein's achievements in this field are
internationally recognized by numerous invited reviews on this
subject.
Besides the scientific programs aimed at the etiology of
atherogenesis, Dr. Kastelein also serves on a number of executive
and steering committees of large intervention studies, including
the IDEAL, TNT, CAPTIVATE, ENHANCE, ILLUMINATE, JUPITER, RADIANCE
and numerous others of which TNT (2005), RADIANCE 1 (2007), ENHANCE
(2008) and JUPITER (2008) are published in the New England Journal
of Medicine, IDEAL (2006) in JAMA and RADIANCE 2 (2007) in
Lancet.
Dr. Kastelein was also one of the founders of Amsterdam
Molecular Therapeutics Inc. (AMT), a gene therapy company based on
the concept of gene replacement in hereditary lipoprotein
disorders. AMT was a successful Initial Public Offering (IPO) at
EuroNext in Amsterdam in 2007. The
results of the first successful human gene therapy trial were
widely publicized in the media and are published in ATVB in
2008. In 1995, Dr. Kastelein set up a foundation for the
active identification of patients with classical familial
hypercholesterolemia (FH) in the
Netherlands (StoeH), for which he currently holds a position
in the board of directors. This program has now been fully
institutionalized and is operational under supervision of the
RijksInstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu (RIVM) and
financially supported by the Ministry of Health with a total grant
of approximately 30 million Euros.
Since its inception, the StoeH has found over 12,000 individuals
for whom a molecular diagnosis of FH could be made. The subsequent
improvement of the treatment of these FH carriers has saved many
lives, as published in Lancet in 2001 and very recently in the
British Medical Journal in 2008. In 1997 and 1998 while
serving as a visiting Professor at the Center for Molecular
Medicine and Therapeutics at the University of
British Columbia, Vancouver,
Canada, Dr. Kastelein was a co-founder of Xenon Genetics
Inc., a drug discovery company (now Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc.)
based in Vancouver, Canada.
He received his medical degree in Amsterdam in 1980 where he subsequently
received specialty training in internal medicine. Then, between
1986 and 1988, he was trained in medical genetics, lipidology and
molecular biology at the University of British
Columbia, Vancouver under
the guidance of Prof. Dr. M.R.
Hayden.
About AtheroNova
AtheroNova Inc., through its wholly-owned subsidiary, AtheroNova
Operations, Inc., is a biotechnology company focused on the
discovery, research, development and licensing of novel compounds
to reduce or regress atherosclerotic plaque deposits and to safely
improve lipid profiles in humans. In addition to its lead compound
AHRO-001, AtheroNova plans to develop multiple applications for its
patents-pending therapies in market sectors that include:
Cardiovascular Disease, Stroke, Peripheral Artery Disease, Dementia
and Alzheimer's and Erectile Dysfunction, all of which have been
linked to atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis and its related
pharmaceutical expenses for these indications cost consumers more
than $41 billion annually in
the United States alone. For more
information, please visit www.AtheroNova.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release includes "forward-looking statements"
within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United
States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These
statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of
AtheroNova's management and are subject to significant risks and
uncertainties. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or risks
or uncertainties materialize, actual results may differ materially
from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.
Risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to,
general industry conditions and competition; significant
fluctuations in expenses associated with clinical trials, failure
to secure additional financing, the inability to complete
regulatory filings with the Food and Drug Administration,
general economic factors, including interest rate and currency
exchange rate fluctuations; the impact of pharmaceutical industry
regulation and health care legislation in the United States and internationally; global
trends toward health care cost containment; technological advances,
new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges
inherent in new product development, including obtaining regulatory
approval; AtheroNova's ability to accurately predict future market
conditions; manufacturing difficulties or delays; financial
instability of international economies and sovereign risk;
dependence on the effectiveness of AtheroNova's patents and other
protections for innovative products; and the exposure to
litigation, including patent litigation, and/or regulatory
actions.
AtheroNova undertakes no obligation to publicly update any
forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise. Additional factors that could cause
results to differ materially from those described in the
forward-looking statements can be found in AtheroNova's 2012 Annual
Report on Form 10-K and the company's other filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) available at the SEC's
Internet site (www.sec.gov).
SOURCE AtheroNova Inc.