Biotech veteran Robert J. Perez to join as
Executive Chairman
Akili Interactive Labs, Inc. ("Akili") today announced the
appointment of former Cubist Pharmaceuticals CEO, Robert J. Perez,
as Executive Chairman. Mr. Perez has been a commercial advisor with
the company for the past year and will now be joining in the more
official leadership role as the company continues its growth.
Additionally, the company has added former DreamWorks Interactive
CEO, Glenn Entis, and former Chief Game Designer at Google, Noah
Falstein, as Executive Advisors. These three biotech and game
industry veterans will bring their cross-disciplinary expertise to
the Akili team as the company advances its diverse product
portfolio and prepares for the potential commercialization of
Akili’s lead product, Project:EVOTM. The Project:EVOTM platform is
currently being evaluated in a pivotal, registration-enabling trial
in patients with pediatric ADHD, which is expected to read out in
the second half of 2017.
“We’re extremely excited to have Rob join us as Executive
Chairman. He brings experience in developing disruptive business
models and a strategic leadership approach that will be critical to
the growth of our company,” said Eddie Martucci, PhD, Akili’s
President and CEO. “Along with Glenn and Noah’s experience and
passion for building leading creative businesses, we’re continuing
to bring onboard top leaders to help make therapeutically-active
digital medicine a reality for many patients.”
Rob Perez joins Akili as Executive Chairman and will work
directly with Dr. Martucci and the Akili management team and Board
of Directors on business strategy, commercial approach, and healthy
company growth as the company continues its leadership footprint in
the budding digital medicine industry. Prior to this, Mr. Perez was
CEO of Cubist Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Merck for $9.5
billion. Prior to joining Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Mr. Perez served
as Vice President of Biogen, Inc.'s CNS Business Unit where he was
responsible for leading the U.S. neurology franchise. Mr. Perez is
also Founder and Chairman at Life Science Cares, a collective
effort of the Life Science Industry to eliminate the impact of
poverty in the greater Boston area.
“I couldn’t be more excited to join the terrific team at Akili
in a more formal role,” said Mr. Perez. “I believe this technology
platform not only has the ability to significantly benefit numerous
patients, but also provides the opportunity to develop a more
effective and efficient business model for our industry and connect
with patients in an entirely new way.”
Also joining the team as Executive Advisors are Glenn Entis and
Noah Falstein, who will work with Akili’s management and product
design teams to further advance the level of quality and engagement
that is a hallmark of Akili’s products.
Glenn Entis is an Academy Award-winning animation pioneer
and games industry veteran. As the CEO of DreamWorks Interactive,
Mr. Entis worked with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg on a
number of video games including the first title in the successful
Medal of Honor series. In 2000, when DreamWorks was acquired by
Electronic Arts (EA), Mr. Entis joined the gaming giant and went on
to become their Chief Visual and Technology Officer. Prior to
joining DreamWorks, Mr. Entis co-founded Pacific Data Images (PDI),
where he co-wrote PDI's first animation system, earning him a
Scientific and Technical Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures
and Arts. Mr. Entis is also a co-founder and Senior Advisor with
Vanedge Capital, a venture capital fund focused on investments in
interactive entertainment and digital media businesses.
“The promise of Akili is simple but profound - combine great
creative game design with cutting edge research to deliver a new
kind of treatment,” said Mr. Entis. “After a long career in
entertainment, I am thrilled to work with this amazing team and to
put everything I've learned into products that will potentially
improve people's lives."
Noah Falstein, the first elected chairman of the Computer
Game Developers Association (CGDA), most recently served as Chief
Game Designer at Google. Mr. Falstein became a professional game
developer in 1980 and has worked on a wide range of games, from the
arcade hit Sinistar, to award winning titles such as Battlehawks
1942, and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. One of the first
ten employees at companies including Lucasfilm Games (LucasArts),
3DO, and DreamWorks Interactive, Mr. Falstein is on the advisory
boards of the Games for Health Conference and Serious Games Summit.
He is an acclaimed and frequent industry speaker on game
innovation, and he writes the design column for Game Developer
Magazine.
"I’m very pleased to be bringing my video game design experience
to Akili,” said Mr. Falstein. “There are few companies in the world
who can match their expertise and depth of experience in both
neuroscience research and software development, and as a result
their product portfolio has the potential to engage people in a
completely new way."
About Akili’s Products
Akili's technologies are based on a proprietary neuroscience
approach developed to target specific neurological systems through
sensory and digital mechanics. The company's lead, patent-pending
technology platform is based on cognitive science exclusively
licensed from the lab of Dr. Adam Gazzaley at the University of
California, San Francisco, and proprietary adaptive algorithms
developed at Akili, all built into action video game interfaces.
The platform powers both assessment (screens and monitors) and
treatment products, which deploy real-time, adaptive cognitive
challenges and interventions, respectively. Both products target
the brain's interference processing system (an individual's core
ability to process multiple streams of information), a key function
underlying cognitive control.
Akili is currently conducting multiple clinical trials of its
leading digital medicine platform across a variety of patient
populations, including pediatric ADHD, autism spectrum disorder (in
collaboration with Autism Speaks), depression, Alzheimer’s disease
and traumatic brain injury.
About Akili Interactive Labs, Inc.
Akili is building clinically-validated cognitive treatments
and assessments that are delivered in an action video game
interface. Leveraging medical-grade science and consumer-grade
software technology, the company is seeking to produce a new type
of medical product that can offer safe and effective scalable
treatment and better monitoring for patients across a range of
mental health and neurological conditions. The company was founded
by and is a subsidiary of PureTech Health (PRTC.L), together with
leading neuroscientists and game designers. Akili’s lead product
candidate, Project: EVOTM, is currently being evaluated in a
pivotal trial in patients with pediatric ADHD that may serve as the
basis of the company’s submission to the FDA for clearance as a
medical device treatment for the pediatric disorder. Akili has
garnered investment from Shire PLC, Amgen Ventures and Merck
Ventures BV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, a subsidiary of Merck
KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany (known as M Ventures in the United States
and Canada), and it has strategic partnerships with Pfizer Inc. and
Autism Speaks.
Forward Looking Statement
This press release contains statements that are or may be
forward-looking statements, including statements that relate to the
company's future prospects, developments and strategies. The
forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and
are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could
cause actual results, performance and achievements to differ
materially from current expectations, including, but not limited
to, those risks and uncertainties described in the risk factors
included in the regulatory filings for PureTech Health plc. These
forward-looking statements are based on assumptions regarding the
present and future business strategies of the company and the
environment in which it will operate in the future. Each
forward-looking statement speaks only as at the date of this press
release. Except as required by law and regulatory requirements,
neither the company nor any other party intends to update or revise
these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170628005412/en/
AkiliAllison Mead, +1 617-651-3156amead@akiliinteractive.com
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