FORT WORTH, Texas, Jan. 09, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TFF Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: TFFP), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing innovative drug products based on its patented Thin Film Freezing technology platform, today announced the appointment of Zamaneh Mikhak, M.D. as Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Mikhak will be responsible for the clinical development of the Company’s pipeline candidates, including the Inhaled Voriconazole Powder and Inhaled Tacrolimus Powder clinical programs.
“We are pleased to welcome Dr. Mikhak to TFF Pharmaceuticals as our Chief Medical Officer,” said Dr. Harlan Weisman, Interim Chief Executive Officer of TFF Pharmaceuticals. “Dr. Mikhak brings to TFF an extraordinary depth of industry and clinical experience that will be instrumental in helping us advance our clinical-stage pipeline candidates and expand our pipeline. This appointment also signals the natural evolution of our Company, as we seek to further expand the clinical applications of Thin Film Freezing to help realize the full potential of our technology platform.”
“I am delighted to be joining TFF Pharmaceuticals, particularly at such an important and exciting period in the Company’s growth,” said Dr. Mikhak. “The therapeutic applications of Thin Film Freezing hold significant potential for optimizing drug delivery to improve clinical outcomes, as already demonstrated through the recently reported compassionate use data from the Inhaled Voriconazole Powder program. I look forward to working with my new TFF colleagues as we embark on this journey together.”
Dr. Mikhak is a physician-scientist Board Certified in Allergy and Immunology with over 23 years of clinical experience and 18 years of basic and translational research experience. Her industry experience spans across big pharma and small biotech, including biologics and small molecules in rare and common diseases in multiple therapeutic areas.
Dr. Mikhak most recently served as Senior Vice President, Head of Clinical Development for Cogent Biosciences, where she oversaw the clinical development function across the company’s major clinical programs. Prior to Cogent, she served as Vice President, Clinical Development at Boston Pharmaceuticals where she led the strategy and clinical development of Avizakimab and executed a global Phase 2 study in systemic lupus erythematosus during the pandemic. Previously, as Senior Director at Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Mikhak advanced Vixarelimab from the preclinical stage into Phase 2 studies in seven indications in approximately two years and generated data towards a successful IPO. Prior to joining Kiniksa, she served as Translation Medicine Lead for early-stage programs across the portfolio at Sanofi Genzyme and led a program in food allergy. She is the lead author on numerous high-profile scientific publications.
Prior to her industry experience, Dr. Mikhak spent over 20 years in clinical practice. From 2006-2014, she practiced medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she provided care to patients with a variety of atopic and immunologic diseases. During her tenure with Boston Children’s Hospital, she established the Healthy Link Asthma Education Program that identified and treated approximately 300 patients with high-risk asthma. Dr. Mikhak was an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and conducted basic and translational research as an NIH funded Principal Investigator.
Dr. Mikhak is Board Certified in Allergy and Immunology. She completed her Fellowship in Allergy and Immunology at Boston Children’s Hospital and completed her Residency in Pediatrics at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. She received her M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and her B.A. in Biology with distinction in Cell Biology from Boston University.
About TFF Pharmaceuticals’ proprietary Thin Film Freezing (TFF) technology
TFF Pharmaceuticals’ proprietary Thin Film Freezing (TFF) technology allows for the transformation of both existing compounds and new chemical entities into dry powder formulations exhibiting unique characteristics and benefits. The Thin Film Freezing process is a particle engineering process designed to generate dry powder particles with advantageous properties for inhalation, as well as parenteral, nasal, oral, topical and ocular routes of administration. The process can be used to engineer powders for direct delivery to the site of need, circumventing challenges of systemic administration and leading to improved bioavailability, faster onset of action, and improved safety and efficacy. The ability to deliver therapies directly to the target organ, such as the lung, allows TFF powders to be administered at lower doses compared to oral drugs, reducing unwanted toxicities and side effects. Laboratory data suggests the aerodynamic properties of the powders created by Thin Film Freezing can deliver as much as 75% of the dose to the deep lung. Thin Film Freezing does not introduce heat, shear stress, or other forces that can damage more complex therapeutic components, such as fragile biologics, and instead enables the reformulation of these materials into easily stored and temperature-stable dry powders, making therapeutics and vaccines more accessible for distribution worldwide. The advantages of Thin Film Freezing can be used to enhance traditional delivery or combined to enable next-generation pharmaceutical products.
About TFF Pharmaceuticals
TFF Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company engaging patented rapid freezing technology to develop and transform medicines into potent dry powder formulations for better efficacy, safety, and stability. The company’s versatile Thin Film Freezing (TFF) technology platform has broad applicability to convert most any drug, including vaccines, small and large molecules, and biologics, into an elegant dry powder highly advantageous for inhalation, with improved absorption so drugs can also be delivered to the eyes, nose and topically to the skin. TFF has two lead drug candidates in the clinic: Voriconazole Inhalation Powder and Tacrolimus Inhalation Powder, and continues to expand its pipeline by collaborating with a broad array of pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, and government partners to revolutionize healthcare around the globe. The TFF Platform is protected by 120+ patents issued or pending in the U.S. and internationally. To learn more about TFF Pharmaceuticals and its product candidates, visit the Company’s website at https://tffpharma.com.
Safe Harbor
This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding TFF Pharmaceuticals, Inc., including, the benefits of the Company’s TFF platform and the Company’s plans to add to its existing pipeline of product candidates. Those forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially. Among those factors are: (i) the risk that the Company may not be able to successfully conclude clinical testing or obtain pre-market approval of any of its dry powder product candidates, (ii) no drug product incorporating the TFF platform has received FDA pre-market approval or otherwise been incorporated into a commercial drug product, (iii) the Company has no current agreements or understandings with any large pharmaceutical companies for the development of a drug product incorporating the TFF Platform, (iv) the risk that the Company will not be able to conclude a long-term commercial agreement with any third-party, and (vi) those other risks disclosed in the section “Risk Factors” included in the Company’s Prospectus Supplement filed with the SEC on November 18, 2022. TFF Pharmaceuticals cautions readers not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. TFF Pharmaceuticals does not undertake, and specifically disclaims, any obligation to update or revise such statements to reflect new circumstances or unanticipated events as they occur, except as required by law.
TFF Contacts:
Corporate Contact:
Bill Begien
VP of Investor Relations
TFF Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
c (617) 842-2222
bbegien@tffpharma.com
Investor Relations Contact:
Corey Davis, Ph.D.
LifeSci Advisors
(212) 915-2577
cdavis@lifesciadvisors.com
Media Contact:
Raena Mina, Ph.D.
LifeSci Communications
rmina@lifescicomms.com
