Qnovia Expands Scientific Board

Qnovia has appointed four new members to its scientific advisory board (SAB). The new members are Neal Benowitz, professor at the University of California at San Francisco, Ian M. Fearon, independent consultant, Darla E. Kendzor, professor at University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, and Nicole Nollen, professor at University of Kansas.

“Our newly appointed advisors bring world-class scientific and multi-disciplinary expertise and reaffirm our commitment to advance novel therapies for the millions of people who seek to quit smoking,” said Qnovia CEO Brian Quigley in a statement.

“We are grateful for the leadership of the chair and founding member of our SAB, Dr. Jasjit S. Ahluwalia, a professor at Brown University, who has been instrumental in shaping the direction of our SAB over the past year. The expansion of our SAB complements the regulatory expertise of our policy and regulatory strategy advisor, Mitch Zeller, who served a prior appointment as director of FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products.”

Qnovia is a pharmaceutical company developing inhaled therapeutics across a variety of indication areas leveraging its proprietary inhaled drug delivery platform, the RespiRx.

“Looking ahead, our SAB will serve a critical role as we advance the clinical development of our lead asset, QN-01, towards FDA and MHRA approval,” Quigley said. “We believe our proprietary drug-device combination platform has the potential to be a first-in-class and best-in-class treatment for smoking cessation.

“Last fall, QN-01 demonstrated a superior pharmacokinetic profile compared to existing nicotine replacement therapies in our first-in-human Phase 1 clinical trial. We plan to submit our IND and CTA to the regulatory bodies and look forward to commencing our Phase 1/2 clinical study this year. Overall, we are highly encouraged by the data we have generated to date and believe that 2024 is going to be a pivotal year for Qnovia,” he added.