
BOSTON, Dec. 09, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Albireo Pharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALBO), a rare liver disease company developing novel bile acid modulators, today announced the upcoming departure of Pat Horn, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer, who will be leaving at the end of the year after almost three and a half years with the Company. Jan Mattsson, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of Albireo, will be taking over as the interim head of R&D, leading research and development of early and late-stage assets and programs. As one of the co-founders of the Company with deep experience in drug development and approvals, Dr. Mattsson is primed to lead the R&D organization with his institutional knowledge, vision for the pipeline and products, and ability to deliver against corporate objectives.
“Our company has made significant progress, going from a small clinical stage team to a fully integrated commercial organization with the launch of BylvayTM (odevixibat), while pursuing two additional Bylvay indications and advancing two promising, novel early assets. Over the last three years, Pat has been an important leader as we progressed our development programs and brought our first product to market. I thank him for his guidance and contributions in providing hope for the families we serve,” said Ron Cooper, President and Chief Executive Officer of Albireo.
Over his time with the Company, Dr. Horn completed the PEDFIC 1 Phase 3 study and the ongoing open-label extension PEDFIC 2 study, both of which contributed to the large body of positive evidence supporting U.S. and European approvals and the subsequent launch of Bylvay. Simultaneously, Dr. Horn and his team initiated two Phase 3 pivotal studies with ASSERT (Alagille syndrome) and BOLD (biliary atresia), both of which are the largest gold standard trials, which will help pave the way toward the Company’s aspiration to reach $1 billion dollars of Bylvay sales by the end of the decade. Dr. Horn also partnered with Dr. Mattsson and his team in progressing the Company’s earlier stage assets A3907 and A2342 for adult cholestatic liver diseases and Hepatitis B & D, respectively.
About Albireo
Albireo Pharma is a rare disease company focused on the development of novel bile acid modulators to treat rare pediatric and adult liver diseases. Albireo’s lead product, Bylvay, was approved by the U.S. FDA as the first drug for the treatment of pruritus in all types of progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC), and it is also being developed to treat other rare pediatric cholestatic liver diseases with Phase 3 trials in Alagille syndrome and biliary atresia, as well as an Open-label Extension (OLE) study for PFIC. In Europe, Bylvay has been approved for the treatment of PFIC and has been submitted for pricing and reimbursement approval. The Company is progressing a Phase 1 clinical trial for A3907 to advance development in adult cholestatic liver disease, with IND-enabling studies moving ahead with A2342 for viral and cholestatic liver disease. Albireo was spun out from AstraZeneca in 2008 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, with its key operating subsidiary in Gothenburg, Sweden. The Boston Business Journal named Albireo one of the 2019 and 2020 Best Places to Work in Massachusetts. For more information on Albireo, please visit www.albireopharma.com.