Abilita Bio Changes Name to Abilita Therapeutics and Appoints Joel Edwards as Chief Business Officer

Abilita Bio, a leader in enabling the discovery of membrane protein-targeted therapeutics, announced today the company changed its name to Abilita Therapeutics. The name change reflects the company’s new focus on both discovery and early preclinical development. The company also expanded its mission to generate first- and best-in-class therapeutics for development and commercialization through partnerships. The company has four active antibody programs, highlighting the power of Abilita Therapeutics’ EMP™ platform. Abilita Therapeutics’ expanded focus uniquely positions the company to build value in historically challenging membrane protein targets, making previously undruggable targets druggable.

Aligned with the company’s expanded mission, Abilita Therapeutics announced the appointment of Joel Edwards as chief business officer, effective June 1, 2023. He will serve as a member of Abilita Therapeutic’s executive leadership team and report to Mauro Mileni, Ph.D., Abilita Therapeutic’s chief executive officer. Mr. Edwards will lead Abilita Therapeutics’ corporate strategy and business development efforts to maximize the value of the company’s EMP™ discovery platform and pipeline through strategic partnerships.

“I’m excited to have Mr. Edwards join Abilita Therapeutics at this pivotal time in our company’s evolution. We now have the tools and team in place to create high-quality development candidates for historically challenging membrane protein targets and drive value creation through partnerships,” said Dr. Mileni. “Mr. Edwards brings extensive experience from both established biopharma and startup companies that will be instrumental as we pursue key partnerships for our current pipeline and strategic relationships, leveraging our EMP™ discovery platform to create additional first- and best-in-class therapeutics for patients with unmet needs.”

Mr. Edwards has 23 years of industry experience and joins Abilita Therapeutics from Biosion USA, Inc., where he served as chief business officer, playing an integral role in closing their B round financing and two significant partnerships in 2022. Previously, he was vice president of corporate strategy and operations at Ionis Pharmaceuticals. During his 13-year tenure at Ionis, he executed strategic transactions and managed partnerships that generated greater than $3.5B in revenue, including management of Ionis’ partnership with Biogen which resulted in the approval of SPINRAZA® for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Before that, Mr. Edwards held various business and scientific roles at Valeant Pharmaceuticals and Lexicon Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Edwards earned his M.B.A. from Colorado State University. He received his B.S. in Psychology from Ball State University.