Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on transforming the lives of patients and their families living with rare neuroendocrine diseases, today announced the appointment of Alastair “Al” Garfield, Ph.D. as Chief Scientific Officer, effective July 1.
“We are excited to welcome Al back to Rhythm as we continue to leverage our understanding of the melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) pathway to bring potential therapies to patients and their families,” said David Meeker, M.D., Rhythm Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President. “Al’s leadership and established scientific expertise and experience in the brain’s regulation of appetite and body weight were instrumental in defining the Rhythm of today, and we are genuinely thrilled he chose to rejoin Rhythm to help us achieve our vision for the future of MC4R therapeutics.”
Also Read: Ori Biotech Unveils IRO Platform at Annual International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy Conference
Dr. Garfield said, “After being part of the team to develop the first generation of MC4R agonists and seeing the transformational promise this precision medicine approach has delivered to patients and families living with hyperphagia and severe obesity, I am excited about the potential for additional opportunities for Rhythm. Decades of research interest in the MC4R pathway tell us that this robustly validated target has broad clinical relevance, and as the industry leader in this mechanism, I believe Rhythm is uniquely positioned to deliver on this potential.”
Dr. Garfield rejoins Rhythm after serving as Senior Vice President and Head of Translational Sciences and Strategy at Rectify Pharma, where he helped deliver first-in-class therapeutics for rare disease. Prior to joining Rectify, Dr. Garfield was Senior Vice President and Head of Translational Research at Rhythm. He also held roles at Pfizer, where he was a lab head in the Cardiovascular Metabolic Disease Research Unit and led novel obesity target identification.
SOURCE: GlobeNewswire