What Happened?
Cambridge, MA-based Xtuit has Appointed Alan Crane as Chief Executive Officer
About the Company
XTuit Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel microenvironment-activated therapeutics targeting key mechanisms resulting in hypoxia, decreased drug uptake, drug resistance, and decreased immune response. The Company’s proprietary drug development pipeline and integrated, sophisticated clinical biomarker platform will be used for accelerated clinical development across selected cancers and fibrotic disorders. XTuit’s compounds act through pleiotropic mechanisms to inhibit extracellular matrix synthesis and stabilization, and to silence activated stromal cells, including cancer-associated fibroblasts and stellate cells. As a result, XTuit compounds alleviate hypoxia and enable enhanced drug uptake through solid stress reduction. Moreover, the drugs have been shown to down-regulate stroma-induced tumor and inflammation signaling pathways to overcome treatment resistance. XTuit’s first two lead series are being developed for early clinical proof-of-concept in liver diseases and cancer.
About the Person
\r\n Alan joined Polaris Partners in 2002 and is a partner and entrepreneur focusing on building and investing in healthcare companies. He has served as founder and/or has played a significant role as chairman and CEO in building six Polaris companies. Alan has co-founded and/or served as Chairman and CEO of Momenta Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MNTA), Cerulean Pharma (NASDAQ:CERU), Visterra, Navitor Pharmaceuticals, XTuit Pharmaceuticals, and Arsia Therapeutics. In addition, Alan`s current and past boards include T2 Biosystems (NASDAQ: TTOO), Ocular Therapeutix (NASDAQ: OCUL), Sirtris Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SIRT, acquired by Glaxo SmithKline), Adnexus Therapeutics (acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb), and Seventh Sense Biosystems. From 2002 to 2006, Alan was President and CEO of Momenta Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MNTA). He joined Momenta as the fifth employee and built the company into a public company, creating an advanced and diversified pipeline, entering into two strategic col¬laborations with Novartis, and raising $275 million. The first product from Momenta`s pipeline achieved over $1B during its first year of sales. Prior to Polaris, Alan was senior vice president of global corporate development at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for leading Millennium`s strategic partnering, mergers and acquisitions, and licensing activities, generating over $2B in partner funding and acquiring 19 development stage products. Among these products was Velcade® which became the main basis of the company`s $9B acquisition by Takeda. Prior to Millennium, Alan was a marketing executive at DuPont-Merck and a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group and Arthur D. Little.\r\n
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