Alphina Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing a best-in-class NAMPT inhibitor for the treatment of a range of solid tumor indications, today announced that it has appointed Nick Galli as chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors. Mr. Galli brings nearly twenty years of private and public pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry experience with a focus on strategy, company building, and business development. As an executive, he has helped biotech companies raise over $450 million in equity and upfront non-dilutive capital. In conjunction with Mr. Galli’s appointment, Barbara S. Fox, Ph.D., who had been serving as Alphina’s interim CEO, will become chair of the company’s board of directors.
“We are excited to welcome Nick to Alphina and thrilled that Barbara will continue to support the company in the role of board chair. Their combined experience and track records of success will help ensure the continued efficient advancement of the company’s best-in-class NAMPT inhibitor program, with the goal of entering the clinic in the next 18 months,” said Colleen Cuffaro, Ph.D., a member of Alphina’s board and a partner at Canaan Partners.
Alphina’s approach to NAMPT inhibition leverages several novel insights and a synthetic lethality strategy to significantly increase the therapeutic index of its small molecules. Unlike other programs previously in the clinic against this target, the company has developed a proprietary patient selection assay to identify the approximately 30% of patients with non-small cell lung, small cell lung, colorectal, ovarian, and other solid tumors with a signature that makes them much more likely to respond to its drug candidates. Alphina has also engineered and optimized its molecules to mitigate the toxicities associated with other NAMPT inhibitors.
To support its work, in September 2021 the company raised $40 million in a Series A financing led by Canaan Partners, with participation from Osage University Partners, Connecticut Innovations, HighCape Partners and Alexandria Venture Investments.
“Alphina has elegantly addressed the liabilities that hindered the development of first generation NAMPT inhibitors. I am pleased to join this talented team of drug developers as we advance our novel approach. I believe we have an opportunity to meaningfully improve the lives of many patients across several difficult to treat solid tumor indications,” said Mr. Galli.
Most recently Mr. Galli was chief operating officer at Interline Therapeutics, which he joined as its second employee. In this role, he oversaw corporate development, strategy, operations, business development, finance, investor relations, legal, human resources, and IT. Previously, Mr. Galli served as chief business officer of CytomX Therapeutics and played a central role in securing the company’s multi-target strategic collaboration with Astellas. He has also served as vice president, business development at Denali Therapeutics, joining the company as one of its first employees within two months of its launch. At Denali he led the execution of more than twenty collaborations, including partnerships with Sanofi-Genzyme, Takeda, Genentech, and F-star. Earlier in his career Mr. Galli was senior director, transactions at Johnson & Johnson Innovation Center and held roles of increasing responsibility at Genentech within the business development and transactional law groups. He began his career as a corporate attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and practiced in the technology transactions group at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
Dr. Fox brings decades of biotech experience and will help guide the strategic direction of the company as it prepares for clinical development. She possesses extensive leadership expertise in creating, building, and advancing early and clinical-stage biotech companies to profitable exits. In addition to her role as board chair at Alphina, Dr. Fox is also a board member for Diagonal Therapeutics and BioHybrid Solutions. Previously she was CEO of Rheos Medicines, a biopharmaceutical company developing novel medicines that modulate immune cell metabolism with a focus on treating patients with severe autoimmune diseases and cancer. Before Rheos Medicines, Dr. Fox was CEO of Tilos Therapeutics, a company developing antibodies specific for LAP-TGFβ for the treatment of cancer, fibrosis, and autoimmune disorders that was acquired by Merck in 2019. She has also served as entrepreneur-in-residence at Partners Innovation Fund, founder and CEO of Avaxia Biologics, founder and CSO of Recovery Pharmaceuticals, vice president, discovery and immunology at ImmuLogic Pharmaceutical Corp., and associate professor of rheumatology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
“I am excited to lead Alphina’s board of directors as the company enters its next phase of development. NAMPT inhibition is a potent anti-cancer mechanism with tremendous potential across large solid tumor indications. I believe the company’s synthetic lethality strategy, novel patient selection assay, and optimized molecules will unlock this target for patients,” said Dr. Fox.
About Alphina Therapeutics
Alphina Therapeutics is a biotech company developing a best-in-class small molecule inhibitor of NAMPT to treat a variety of solid tumors. Founded by world-class scientists and backed by a strong investor syndicate of venture capitalists, the company is also developing a proprietary companion diagnostic to enable selection of patients whose tumors harbor a specific perturbation which make their tumor exquisitely sensitive to Alphina’s compounds. Approximately 30% of all solid tumors display this perturbation, positioning these patients as potential candidates for treatment with the company’s drug candidate. The company aims to advance its NAMPT inhibitor program into the clinic in early 2026.
