Pharmaleads, a biopharmaceutical company specialized in the development of innovative pain relief products, announces the promotion of Tanja Ouimet as Chief Operating Officer and Hervé Poras as Chief Scientific Officer. They are missioned by the Board of Directors to accelerate the developments of the DENKIs® for the treatment of migraines and cancer-related pain.

“Tanja and Hervé have been at the heart of DENKI developments, and the Board of Directors unanimously agreed to entrust them with the development and market launch of our first in class drugs for the treatment of pain”, commented Thierry Bourbie, Chairman of Pharmaleads’ Board of Directors.

“After a strategic repositioning of the DENKIsbased on the first in-human data compiled, I’m thrilled to be given, alongside Hervé Poras, the opportunity to lead Pharmaleads into its next stage and to bring the pain relieving benefits of our DENKIs to the many suffering patients in a rapidly-growing market with yet unanswered unmet needs”, added Tanja Ouimet, Chief Operating Officer of Pharmaleads.

Tanja Ouimet, PhD, neuroscientist, has been named Chief Operating Officer of Pharmaleads, in charge of business development. Tanja’s biotech expertise and experience in drug candidate research and development, have had a crucial impact on Pharmaleads. Before joining the company, Tanja began her scientific career in 1996 working at the INSERM U109 unit where she led research on metalloproteases as novel therapeutic targets. Tanja was born in Montreal, Quebec where she grew up and completed her graduate studies at the Institute of Clinical Research of Montréal (IRCM). After obtaining her PhD in Neurological Sciences from the University of Montreal, she moved to Paris where she has lived ever since. She joined Pharmaleads in 2006 as head of the biochemistry department, and was later put in charge of overseeing the DENKIs clinical trials as Chief Clinical Development Officer. She has authored over 30 publications in peer reviewed scientific journals, is the co-inventor of four patents and has also established strategic industry partnerships that will be key in Pharmaleads’ development.

Hervé Poras, PhD, a chemist and key contributor in Pharmaleads’ intellectual property portfolio, has been named Chief Scientific Officer. His expertise in the design and synthesis of specific metalloprotease inhibitors with multiple therapeutic applications has been invaluable to Pharmaleads and its patent portfolio. Hervé is a graduate of the Ecole Nationale de Chimie Paris (Chemical Engineering school). He completed his PhD in organic chemistry at the University of Orsay (Paris XI) followed by two years of post-doctoral research in Japan at the Sagami research facility close to Tokyo. Hervé joined Pharmaleads in 2002 when he took over as head of the chemistry department with responsibility for synthesizing Dual Enkephalinase Inhibitors (DENKIs). He was responsible for the pre-clinical development of the DENKIs once PL37 was selected as the first drug candidate. He has been Chief Pre-Clinical Operations and CMC Officer since 2017. Hervé is the co-inventor of 13 patents, has authored over 20 publications in international scientific journals and established new addiction- and migraine-related partnerships and alliances with Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) to help promote Pharmaleads’ DENKIs vis-à-vis the National Institute for Health (NIH) and the National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA).

About Pharmaleads DENKIs
Pharmaleads' products, (Dual ENKephalinase inhibitors) DENKIs, aim to protect enkephalins from degradation, hence increasing their local concentrations and thereby inducing a physiological analgesia which improves pain management. Pharmaleads has two products in clinical development which are targeting four multi-billion-dollar markets:

About Pharmaleads
Headquarted in Paris, Pharmaleads is a clinical stage, private biotech company creating and developing innovative non-opiate, non-addictive products for the management of acute and chronic moderate to severe pain, a growing market with significant unmet medical need. Pharmaleads' drugs are based on its deep knowledge and understanding of the metabolism of enkephalins, a key element of the body's natural pain management system.
Pharmaleads has two products in human clinical development. The first, PL265 is being developed for the treatment of chronic pain (oral) and ocular/dry eye syndrome (eye drops). The second, PL37 is developed for the treatment of post-surgical/breakthrough cancer pain as a substitute to injectable opiates (IV) and acute migraine headache (oral). Pharmaleads is also collaborating with academic partners to explore the potential therapeutic actions of PL37 in opiate use and withdrawal disorders.
For more information about Pharmaleads please visit www.Pharmaleads.com