Health

MetaStat (MTST) Adds Accomplished Drug Developer Renato Skerlj to Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board

August 3, 2017

•

2 min read

Last week in this space, we discussed MetaStat (OTCQB: MTST), which has been developing treatments and diagnostics to stop cancer metastasis, the direct or indirect cause of 90% of all cancer deaths. The company has made another key addition to an already deep leadership team with the announcement today that accomplished drug developer, Renato T. Skerlj, PhD, has joined MetaStat’s Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board.

Dr. Skerlj has over 25 years of pharmaceutical experience in drug development resulting in two marketed drugs – Invanz, the anti-infective from Merck (NYSE: MRK) and Mozobil, the stem cell mobilizer from Sanofi (NYSE: SNY) – and multiple drugs in clinical development. He serves as VP of Drug Discovery and Preclinical Development at Lysosomal Therapeutics, is co-founder and a Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of X4 Pharmaceuticals and co-founder of Noliva Therapeutics.

Previously, Dr. Skerlj served as the Head of Small Molecule Discovery at Genzyme, prior to its acquisition by Sanofi. He served as Vice President of Chemistry for AnorMED, a publicly-traded company acquired by Genzyme for $580 million in 2006. Prior to AnorMED, Dr. Skerlj served as a Senior Research Chemist at Merck and Senior Scientist at Johnson Matthey’s biomedical research group. Dr. Skerlj earned his doctorate from the University of British Columbia and completed a fellowship at the University of Oxford in Dr. Stephen Davies’ laboratory.

“MetaStat’s proprietary driver-based pan-cancer biomarkers are exciting targets for cancer drug development. They represent the promise of personalized medicine and the potential for new targeted cancer therapies that address major treatment challenges facing oncologists and their patients,” said Dr. Skerlj.

“I am especially delighted to welcome Dr. Skerlj to MetaStat’s SAB to help with our internal anti-metastatic drug development program. Renato’s knowledge, experience and successful track record are invaluable assets to help us efficiently advance our small molecule program that is aimed at preventing aggressive cancer from spreading,” stated Douglas. A. Hamilton, MetaStat’s President and CEO.