Former Allergan CEO Joins SoCal Startup

Bioniz Therapeutics, Inc. (Irvine, CA) announced that it has appointed Dr. David Pyott as Chairman of the Board of Directors, effective immediately. Ilan Zipkin Ph.D., Senior Investment Director, Takeda Ventures, and Joe Kiani, Chairman and CEO of medical device company Masimo Corporation (MASI), have also joined the Company's Board of Directors.

The company has raised $13 million in its Series A funding from an investment syndicate co-led by Takeda, via its corporate venture arm Takeda Ventures Inc.

David Pyott served as CEO of Allergan Inc. from 1998 to 2015, where he was credited with helping to transform a small eye care business with approximately $1 billion in sales to a global specialty company with sales over $7 billion in 2014 and more than 10,000 employees.

Bioniz is focused on the discovery and development of first-in-class peptide therapeutics that selectively and simultaneously inhibit multiple cytokines to treat immuno-inflammatory diseases and cancer. The company has announced that an Investigational New Drug Application (IND) for BNZ-1 has been accepted by the FDA and a Phase 1 clinical trial in healthy volunteers is expected to commence shortly in close partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH).