Daniel Gallo, Ph.D., Appointed Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs and Advocacy
Abbi Maher, J.D., Named Vice President of Legal Affairs
CELEBRATION, Fla., Jan. 31, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- KemPharm, Inc. (NasdaqGS: KMPH) (KemPharm, or the Company), a rare disease therapeutics company focused on the development of treatments for rare central nervous system (CNS), neurodegenerative diseases, lysosomal storage disorders and related treatment areas, announced that it has named Daniel Gallo, Ph.D., as Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs and Advocacy, and Abbi Maher, J.D., as Vice President of Legal Affairs. Both positions are newly created at KemPharm and continue a series of enhancements to the Company’s leadership to support its transformation into a leading rare disease company.
“KemPharm’s strategic vision is to become a commercially-focused rare disease company, and this will require excellence in how we interact with the medical community and how we conduct business in general,” stated Richard W. Pascoe, Chief Executive Officer of KemPharm. “Dan and Abbi have been brought into KemPharm to provide this expertise, and we are excited to benefit from their knowledge and experience working with companies that have undergone similar growth. We are particularly excited about the opportunity to benefit from Dan’s deep understanding of arimoclomol and his prior work with the Niemann-Pick disease type C (NPC) patient and caregiver community.”
Dr. Gallo joins KemPharm from Jaguar Gene Therapy LLC, where he established the gene therapy company’s medical affairs organization and was instrumental in advancing its clinical and regulatory strategies through external collaborations and partnerships with advocacy. Prior to that, Dr. Gallo was Vice President and Head of U.S. Medical Affairs at Orphazyme, the company which developed arimoclomol and whose assets KemPharm acquired in 2022. Among his accomplishments at Orphazyme, Dr. Gallo was responsible for establishing a 15-site U.S. expanded access program (EAP) that continues to support NPC patients across the country. Additionally, he built Orphazyme’s field medical team and led planning and execution of external engagement and collaboration, evidence generation, and scientific communications. Dr. Gallo’s career is also highlighted by launch experience and medical strategy roles with global pharmaceutical companies, including Sanofi Genzyme, Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie, and Shire. Dr. Gallo earned his Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology at Northwestern University.
Ms. Maher joins KemPharm from Cytel Inc., a multinational statistical software developer and contract research organization. As Senior Corporate Counsel, Ms. Maher served on a five-member legal team where she led the drafting, reviewing, negotiation and execution of Cytel’s global vendor and customer agreements. Prior to Cytel, Ms. Maher was Senior Legal Counsel at Cumberland Pharmaceuticals, a publicly-traded biopharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures and supplies acute care, gastroenterology and oncology drug products. At Cumberland, Ms. Maher provided legal support across all business units, including executive, corporate development, research and development, clinical, supply chain, human resources, compliance, marketing and IT. Ms. Maher’s career also includes experience at Loeb & Loeb LLP and Crownover Blevins PC. She earned her B.A. from Vanderbilt University and law degree from Catholic University of America.
About KemPharm:
KemPharm is a rare disease therapeutics company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel treatments for rare CNS and neurodegenerative diseases, lysosomal storage disorders and related treatment areas. KemPharm has a diverse product portfolio, combining a clinical-stage development pipeline with NDA-stage and commercial assets. The pipeline includes arimoclomol, an orally-delivered, first-in-class investigational product candidate for Niemann-Pick disease type C (NPC), and KP1077, which the Company is developing as a treatment for idiopathic hypersomnia (IH), a rare neurological sleep disorder, and narcolepsy. In addition, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved AZSTARYS®, a once-daily treatment for ADHD in patients age six years and older containing KemPharm’s prodrug, serdexmethylphenidate (SDX), which is being commercialized by Corium, Inc. in the U.S. The FDA has also approved APADAZ®, an immediate-release combination product containing benzhydrocodone, KemPharm’s prodrug of hydrocodone, and acetaminophen, which is being commercialized by KVK-Tech, Inc. in the U.S. For more information on KemPharm and its pipeline of product candidates, visit www.kempharm.com or connect with us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube.
Early access programs are made available by KemPharm, Inc. and its affiliates, and are subject to the Company’s Early Access Program (EAP) policy as published on its website at www.kempharm.com. Participation in these programs is subject to the laws and regulations of each jurisdiction under which each respective program is operated. Eligibility for participation in any such program is at the discretion of the treating physician.
