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Cara Therapeutics Appoints New CMO

Dr. Joana Goncalves brings more than 17 years of leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical industry to Cara

Cara Therapeutics announced the appointment of Joana Goncalves, M.D., as chief medical officer. Dr. Joseph Stauffer, Cara’s former chief medical officer, will transition to a consulting role for the Company.


“We are very pleased to welcome Joana to the Cara team. She brings a wealth of clinical development and medical affairs expertise with novel dermatology products, which will be invaluable as we execute the late-stage development of KORSUVA™ in chronic kidney disease-associated pruritus, and further expand our clinical program into dermatologic conditions such as atopic dermatitis,” said Derek Chalmers, Ph.D., D.Sc., president and chief executive officer of Cara Therapeutics. “We would also like to thank Joe Stauffer for all of his significant contributions to the Company over the last four years.”

“I am thrilled to join the leadership team at Cara at such an exciting stage in the development of KORSUVA,” said Dr. Goncalves. “Pruritus associated with dermatological diseases remains a prevalent clinical issue and, based on both clinical and preclinical data to date, I believe KORSUVA offers great potential to address this significant unmet need.”

Dr. Goncalves brings more than 17 years of leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical industry to Cara. Most recently, she served as Vice President, Medical Affairs for Dermatology and Neurology at Celgene Corporation where she was instrumental in planning and executing medical support activities for a number of programs, including OTEZLA® for psoriatic arthritis. 

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