Nosopharm, a France-based biotechnology company dedicated to the research and development of new anti-infective drugs, announces today the appointment of Dr Sarah Gould as chief development officer. In this post, she will oversee the translation of Nosopharm’s R&D programs from the pre-clinical to the clinical development stage.

Dr Sarah Gould brings over 20 years’ experience in non-clinical pharmacology and toxicology. She was previously at Adocia, where she was non-clinical director for pharmacology and toxicology. Prior to this, Dr Gould worked as senior director for non-clinical safety at Sanofi Pasteur and held several positions at AstraZeneca UK. She has a PhD in Biological Sciences from Victoria University of Manchester.

 "We are thrilled to welcome Dr Sarah Gould as chief development officer. We have reached a crossroads in the development of NOSO-502. Sarah has the proven track record to make this first-in-class antibiotic progress towards the next step: entry into the first-in-human clinical studies,” said Philippe Villain-Guillot, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nosopharm.

“I’m delighted to have this opportunity. I’ve worked for many years in big pharma, where I gained a lot of experience in drug and vaccine development. To now take that expertise to Nosopharm, an evolving biotech, and to use it to develop a much-needed antibiotic is a pleasure. It will no doubt be a challenge but I hope to continue to learn as biotech companies reshape the pharmaceutical drug development model and learn how to keep the creativity and flexibility that they bring,” said Dr Sarah Gould.

Nosopharm’s lead candidate, NOSO-502, is the first clinical candidate in the novel antibiotic class called Odilhorhabdins (ODLs). It inhibits the bacterial ribosome with a new mechanism of action and is intended for the treatment of nosocomial infections caused by Enterobacteriaceae, including polymyxin- and carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE). NOSO-502 has proven to be effective in vivo in several Enterobacteriaceae infection models and demonstrated antibacterial activity in vitro against multi-drug resistant clinical isolates (KPC, NDM, and OXA among others).

Nosopharm expects IND-enabling studies to start in 2019 and to launch first-in-human studies with NOSO-502 in 2020.