Athira Pharma Inc., a late clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing small molecules to restore neuronal health and slow neurodegeneration, has appointed Javier San Martin, M.D., as Chief Medical Officer.
 
San Martin brings more than 25 years of drug development experience and a proven track record leading cross-functional product teams to drive global development and commercialization strategies for multiple drugs across large and rare diseases with significant unmet medical need.
 
“We are pleased to welcome Javier to the team and are confident his insights and guidance will be instrumental as we advance the Company’s next phase of growth,” said Mark Litton, Ph.D., President and CEO of Athira. “Javier’s decades of drug development experience will be invaluable to Athira as we advance our pipeline of therapeutic candidates for neurodegenerative diseases, including fosgonimeton, which is in late-stage clinical development for Alzheimer’s disease with Phase 2/3 LIFT-AD data expected in the second half of 2024, and ATH-1105 for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) which is expected to enter the clinic this year.”
 
“I’m thrilled to join Athira at this key juncture in the Company’s growth, as we approach a late-stage data readout for fosgonimeton in Alzheimer’s disease and initiate the first-in-human trial of ATH-1105 in ALS,” said San Martin. “I believe Athira’s therapeutic approach to targeting and promoting the neurotrophic hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) system has the potential to significantly alter the treatment paradigm for neurodegenerative diseases and provide profound benefit to patients in need of better treatment options.”

Experience

San Martin joins Athira from Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, where he served as Chief Medical Officer and guided development teams to advance that company’s RNAi-based therapeutics in the metabolic and liver disease area. Prior to Arrowhead, he served as Senior Vice President and Head of Global Clinical Development at Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical, where he led the development of Crysvita (burosumab-twza). Before that, San Martin served as Senior Vice President of Clinical Development at Alder Biopharmaceuticals, where he managed medical, regulatory, and clinical operations.
 
Earlier, he led two major development programs as Global Development Leader for Amgen’s Bone Therapeutic Area and directed the anti-sclerostin antibody clinical program Eventiy (romosozumab-aqqg) through the end of Phase 2 and was responsible for development and approval of Prolia (denosumab) for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis. Prior to Amgen, Dr. San Martin spent seven years at Eli Lilly working on Phase 3b and Phase 4 clinical trials to support the successful launch and medical affairs activities for Evista and Forteo.
 
San Martin received his medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires Medical School and completed his residence in internal medicine at CEMIC University of Buenos Aires.