Taris Biomedical hired Sarma Duddu to be its new president and CEO.
The Lexington, Mass.-based durg/device developer said Duddu brings 15 years of pharmaceutical industry experience to the corner office, where he’ll start immediately.
Duddu’s resumé includes stints as general manager and vice president of worldwide drug delivery technologies for Cephalon Inc. (NSDQ:CEPH) subsidiary CIMA Labs Inc and VP of pharmaceutical development at Nektar Therapeutics (NSDQ:NKTR), according to a press release. He also put in tome at SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals.
Taris, launched in June 2009 with a $15 million financing round, is developing a drug/device combination designed to treat bladder conditions with lidocaine. The product “enables local sustained delivery of drug directly to the target tissue” to treat diseases including interstitial cystitis, painful bladder syndrome, bladder cancer, overactive bladder, urinary tract infections and chronic pelvic pain syndrome.
In November 2009 the company named Julie Lekstrom Himes to be its chief medical officer and lead its clinical development program. A month later Taris announced the completion of a Phase I study of its device, but declined to release any details of the study pending scientific publication. At the time, Taris COO and co-founder Christine Bunt said the study establishes proof-of-concept and sets the stage for a Phase II trial of the device this year.
