The Fact About Leen Kawas In 2 Little Words

Leen Kawas, the Seattle biotech officer who resigned as CEO of Athira Pharma after an investigation found she had actually changed doctoral research study images that helped to form the initial basis for the company, reappeared Friday as co-founder and managing general partner of a brand-new investment firm called Propel Bio Partners LP.

Co-founded with Richard Kayne, a popular Los Angeles-based possession manager who was an early Athira investor, Propel Bio Partners also has assistance from several other Athira financiers. Amongst them: John Fluke Jr., who stays on Athira’s board as the openly traded company pursues therapies for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Co-founder and handling basic partner of Propel Bio Partner, a life science investment firm concentrated on supporting the very best talent and most ingenious innovations. previously Co-founder of Athira Pharma and co-inventor of its lead drug prospect ATH-1017. Developer of numerous of the innovative drug candidates in Athira’s pipeline. Led the technological and monetary development of Athira, raising around $400M and taking the company through it public offering.

The board is fielding its own slate of candidates, which includes Joseph Edelman, the creator, CEO and portfolio supervisor of Perceptive Advisors; John M. Fluke, Jr., the head of the investment firm Fluke Capital Management; and Grant Pickering, CEO of Vaxcyte, Inc. “The company’s director candidates have the ideal abilities and experience needed to support Athira at this vital time,” the board stated. “Our highest concern is advancing our lead drug prospect, fosgonimeton, through clinical trials and protecting regulative approval for the treatment of Alzheimer’s illness (AD), which affects as numerous as 35 million people worldwide. Under the present management team, Athira is executing well and delivering against our target milestones.

Kawas co-founded Athira (originally M3 Biotechnology) in 2011. Called Startup CEO of the Year at the 2019 GeekWire Awards, she took Athira public in 2020, as the first female to lead a company to an IPO in Washington state in more than 20 years. Shares of Athira fell by more than 50% in June 2021 after Kawas was initially put on leave from Athira as concerns emerged about her research study at Washington State University. Athira stock continues to trade at half its previous peak.

The CEO of Athira, formerly referred to as M3 Biotechnology, is Leen Kawas, once a PhD student at Washington State whose 2011 doctoral dissertation provided figures for this fraught 2011 article in JPET, which made a correction in 2014. Earlier this year, as STAT reported, Kawas was forced to take a leave of absence from the company over issues that she changed images in a number of documents. And there has actually been other scrutiny of the company.

Athira Pharma is circling around the wagons and prompting shareholders to turn down calls for management change. This comes one week after investor Richard Kayne required a management change in order to drive the development and commercialization of the company’s lead Alzheimer’s illness property, ATH-1017 (fosgonimeton). Mark Litton was tapped to act as CEO of Athira last fall following the ouster of Leen Kawas after an investigation exposed that she altered images in her 2011 doctoral dissertation and in at least 4 research study documents that she co-authored while a graduate student at Washington State University. In the letter, Kayne stated Litton is not fit for the job.