Esperion Announces Establishment of Scientific Advisory Board to Support Pipeline and Life Cycle Management

ANN ARBOR, Mich., July 25, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Esperion (NASDAQ: ESPR) today announced the establishment of its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). The inaugural members of the Esperion SAB represent a diverse group of internationally renowned experts who will bring a depth and breadth of basic, translational, and clinical research experience across several key therapeutic areas that will inform our research and development strategy moving forward. The members of the SAB are at the forefront of research in atherosclerosis and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, inflammation, metabolic disorders, and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis/non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.  

“This is a crucial time for Esperion with our CLEAR Outcomes trial reading out in the coming months and major pipeline developments underway,” said Sheldon Koenig, president and chief executive officer of Esperion. “The insights and recommendations of our SAB members will play a key role in guiding the future of Esperion and optimizing the potential of both our currently marketed products, and the investigational assets in our pipeline, including an oral PCSK9 inhibitor and ATP citrate lyase inhibitors. You will hear more about these programs at our R&D Day on November 9.” 

The Esperion SAB will be co-chaired by the renowned physician-scientist Peter Libby, MD, FAHA, Cardiovascular Specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, current president of the International Atherosclerosis Society, and member of the executive committee for Esperion’s CLEAR Outcomes (Cholesterol Lowering via Bempedoic Acid, an ACL-Inhibiting Regimen) study, and Joanne Foody, MD, FACC, FAHA, Chief Medical Officer of Esperion.

The inaugural members of Esperion’s SAB are: 

Peter Libby, MD, FAHA is a cardiovascular specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. His areas of clinical expertise include general and preventive cardiology. His current major research focus is the role of inflammation in vascular diseases such as atherosclerosis. Dr. Libby has a particular devotion to translating his basic laboratory studies to pilot and then large-scale clinical cardiovascular outcome trials. He instigated and helped to lead the large scale Canakinumab Anti-Inflammatory Thrombosis Outcomes Trial (CANTOS) that provided clinical validation of the role of inflammation in atherosclerosis. 

Jeffrey Bender, MD is a cardiologist, researcher and immunobiologist who cares for patients with cardiovascular (CV) issues and disorders, ranging from CV prevention to angina, heart failure, and atrial fibrillation. Dr. Bender is the Robert I. Levy Professor of Preventive Cardiology and a Professor of Immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine, as well as the Senior Vice Chief for academic development in the Cardiovascular Medicine division.  He also established the Yale-Cambridge Program in Cardiovascular Research that focuses on arteriosclerosis, angiogenesis, vascular injury, and transplantation.

Erin A. Bohula, MD, DPhil is a cardiovascular medicine and critical care specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In addition, she is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, a staff investigator for the Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) Study Group, and a founding member of the Critical Care Cardiology Trials Network. Her research interests include pharmacologic interventions for cardiometabolic disease, such and hyperlipidemia and obesity, as well as expanding the evidence base for management of critically ill cardiovascular patients.

Karin Bornfeldt, PhD, FAHA is the Edwin L. Bierman Professor of Medicine and Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology. She also serves as Director of the Diabetes Complications Program of the UW Medicine Diabetes Institute, and Deputy Director of the Diabetes Research Center at the University of Washington. She is a Consulting Editor for Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, and an Associate Editor for Circulation Research, and the Journal of Lipid Research. Her research focuses on cardiovascular complications of diabetes, with a particular emphasis on the role of lipoproteins.

Dennis Bruemmer, MD, PhD is a cardiologist and the Director of the Center for Cardiometabolic Health in the Section of Preventive Cardiology and Rehabilitation in the Robert and Suzanne Tomsich Department of Cardiovascular Medicine of the Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute. He is a Professor of Medicine at Cleveland Clinic Lerner School of Medicine Case Western Reserve Medical School. He specializes in preventive cardiology, particularly in the comprehensive management of cardiovascular risk and metabolic control of patients with diabetes.  

David E. Cohen, MD, PhD is a hepatologist and the Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Endoscopy at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. For more than 25 years his laboratory research programs have focused on understanding the molecular regulation of hepatic lipid and glucose metabolism. His studies are also examining nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) while unraveling the key aspects of this condition and its risk factors, which are implicated in obesity-related disorders (e.g., NAFLD, type 2 diabetes, coronary artery disease, as well as an increased predisposition to cancer).

Gabrielle Fredman, PhD is an Associate Professor of Molecular and Cellular Pathology at Albany Medical College. She is the principal investigator of an NIH-funded research laboratory focused on identifying cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying failed inflammation-resolution programs in atherosclerosis and aging. Dr. Fredman is also passionate about research of inflammation, resolution of inflammation, lipid mediators, and macrophages.

Marilyn Glassberg, MD is a pulmonologist with expertise in interstitial and rare lung diseases, John W. Clarke Endowed Professor, and Chair of the Department of Medicine for the Loyola University of Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. She was the inaugural division Chief of pulmonary medicine, critical care, and sleep medicine; the Vice-Chair for diversity and inclusion, as well as senior director of clinical research and strategy and growth for the Department of Internal Medicine for the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix and Banner University Medical Center for the past 3 years. Dr. Glassberg has spearheaded “bench to bedside” medicine by conducting National Institutes of Health, industry-sponsored and investigator-initiated clinical trials in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. 

R. Preston Mason, MBA, PhD is on the faculty of the Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He is also President and Founder of Elucida Research, a private biotechnology firm, in Beverly, Massachusetts. Research interests include membrane biophysics, mechanisms of cholesterol crystallization in plaque and the response of the endothelium to oxidative stress and inflammation. Dr. Mason serves on a number of grant review committees, has authored more than 175 full scientific publications, and has multiple patents.

Pradeep Natarajan, MD, MMSc is a cardiologist and the Director of Preventive Cardiology and the Paul and Phyllis Fireman Endowed Chair in Vascular Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Associate Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. He also oversees the clinical and training programs on the prevention of cardiometabolic diseases leading the MGH Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Center Dr. Natarajan uses germline and somatic genetic variation to uncover new biology and enable enhanced clinical care for cardiovascular disease.  

Gerald I. Shulman, MD, PhD, MACP, MACE, FRCP is an endocrinologist and a George R. Cowgill Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology) and Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology at Yale. He is also Co-Director of the Yale Diabetes Research Center. Dr. Shulman has pioneered the use of magnetic resonance spectroscopy combined with mass spectrometry to non-invasively examine intracellular glucose and fat metabolism in humans and transgenic rodent models that have led to several paradigm shifts in our understanding of type 2 diabetes.  

Esperion Therapeutics 
Esperion works hard to make our medicines easy to get, easy to take and easy to have. We discover, develop and commercialize innovative medicines and combinations to lower cholesterol, especially for patients whose needs aren’t being met by the status quo. Our entrepreneurial team of industry leaders is inclusive, passionate and resourceful. We are singularly focused on managing cholesterol so you can improve your health easily. For more information, please visit www.esperion.com and follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/EsperionInc. 

Forward-Looking Statements 
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding future operations, commercial products, clinical development including the timing, designs and plans for the CLEAR Outcomes study and its results, plans for potential future product candidates, and other statements containing the words “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “predict,” “project,” “suggest,” “target,” “potential,” “will,” “would,” “could,” “should,” “continue,” and similar expressions. Any express or implied statements contained in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause Esperion’s actual results to differ significantly from those projected, including, without limitation, the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on our business, revenues, results of operations and financial condition, the net sales, profitability, and growth of Esperion’s commercial products, clinical activities and results, supply chain, commercial development and launch plans, and the risks detailed in Esperion’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and Esperion disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this press release, other than to the extent required by law. 

Contact: 
Corporate Communications 
corporateteam@esperion.com