Eloxx Pharmaceuticals Inc., has appointed Ali Hariri, M.D., as its chief medical officer, overseeing clinical development efforts for the company’s promising pipeline of therapies to treat rare diseases. Dr. Hariri will report to Vijay Modur, M.B.B.S., Ph.D., the company’s head of Research and Development.
 
Hariri was previously senior global project head in Rare Disease Clinical Development at Sanofi where he oversaw key functions responsible for advancing a number of investigational therapies along with full approval for on-market therapies within the Sanofi Genzyme specialty care business. Prior to his role as global project head at Sanofi Genzyme, Hariri held several positions of increasing responsibility with expertise across a range of therapeutic areas including nephrology and immunology. Before joining Sanofi, Hariri held clinical development roles at Ionis Pharmaceuticals and Takeda and was a practicing nephrologist.
 
“Our top priority at Eloxx remains the advancement of ELX-02, which is currently in Phase 2 clinical trials. Dr. Hariri’s experience in rare disease clinical development brings the type of skills necessary to advance this key imperative while quickly advancing our promising pre-clinical pipeline into human trials,” said Sumit Aggarwal, president and CEO of Eloxx.
 
The company reaffirmed its expectation that data from the first four treatment arms of the ELX-02 Phase 2 study will be available in the fourth quarter of 2021. ELX-02 is currently in Phase 2 clinical trials in CF patients affected by nonsense mutations in the CFTR (CF transmembrane conductance regulator) gene. The Phase 2 trials are designed to evaluate the safety of ELX-02 and assess its biological activity.
 
“The Eloxx pipeline has tremendous potential, and I’m thrilled to be joining a team with the skills and commitment to advance meaningful therapies on behalf of patients,” said Hariri.
 
Hariri earned his M.D. from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, completed his residency at Case Western Reserve, and did his fellowship in nephrology at Yale University School of Medicine.