MRM Health – a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative microbiome-based biotherapeutics based on its proprietary and unique CORAL platform technology – announced that it appointed Katja Conrath, PhD, as Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Conrath brings more than 15 years of experience in drug discovery and early development in various indications, among which fibrosis and inflammation. She will oversee MRM Health’s non-clinical research and development strategies, as well as the Company’s proprietary CORAL platform technology.
Leveraging on its proprietary CORAL platform for accelerated development and scalable, cost-effective manufacturing of live microbial consortia therapeutics, MRM Health is currently active across inflammatory, CNS and metabolic diseases. Its most advanced program MH002 is in clinical development, with a phase 2a trial in mild-to-moderate Ulcerative Colitis (UC) completing clinical evaluation in all 45 target patients and a trial in acute Pouchitis ongoing. Topline data from the UC trial are expected early Q3 2023.
“MRM Health’s strategy of developing rationally-designed and disease-mechanism focused therapeutics based on optimized combinations of live commensal gut bacteria, has the potential to become a novel standard within the microbiome field and a novel approach to tackle a range of diseases with high unmet need,” Commented Katja Conrath, PhD. “With a powerful technology platform and a strong science focus, I am excited to further build MRM Health’s therapeutic pipeline and guide the Company’s R&D ambitions to further value inflection points.”
Prior to joining MRM Health, Dr. Conrath was VP Research at Galapagos, where she was responsible for translating the company’s strategy into actual target discovery and drug discovery approaches in inflammation and fibrosis areas and for managing the research portfolio. Throughout her career she worked with different therapeutic modalities such as small molecules, antibodies and oligonucleotides. Dr. Conrath holds a PhD in applied biological sciences from the University of Brussels, Belgium.
