Dawn Furnas//April 13, 2022//
Citius Pharmaceuticals Inc. is realigning its management team to strengthen its commercial capabilities, the Cranford biopharmaceutical company announced April 13.
The company’s board of directors appointed Citius co-founder and Executive Chairman Leonard Mazur as chairman of the board and CEO. Additionally, Citius co-founder Myron Holubiak will transition from president and CEO to the newly created position of executive vice chairman of the board, effective May 1. He will be responsible for building the Citius commercial team and guiding the anticipated product launches of the company’s first commercial products.
The near-term focus will be on the launch of I/ONTAK for the treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, which recently released topline results from its Phase 3 trial, and Mino-Lok, which is expected to complete Phase 3 trial enrollment later this year, according to the announcement.
Additionally, current Chief Financial Officer Jaime Bartushak will assume additional responsibilities as chief business officer. He will oversee all aspects of finance, business development and operations at the company.
Michael McGuire also will join the company as vice president, program leader for anti-infectives, effective May 1. McGuire’s pharmaceutical industry background includes P&L management, strategic planning, marketing and product development. While at Roche Laboratories, McGuire led the Tamiflu franchise to become the first billion-dollar product for Roche in the U.S. and designed a direct-to-consumer Tamiflu educational campaign that raised consumer awareness by 65%.
Most recently, McGuire was senior vice president commercial, government affairs, and customer engagement at Melinta Therapeutics. He also served as senior vice president, global infectious disease at The Medicines Co.
In a statement, Mazur said “now is the ideal time to reposition the organization to take full advantage of our in-house expertise.”
“Myron and I co-founded Leonard Meron Biosciences, which ultimately merged with Citius, to bring life-altering therapies to patients in need,” he said. “He continues to be an outstanding partner and dedicated CEO who, together with me, has driven continued growth in Citius including leading the expansion of our portfolio to five active programs, taking the company public and successfully raising capital to advance our strategy. … We intend to leverage the momentum in our programs to focus on developing robust marketing, sales and distribution capabilities to support successful market entry for the assets in our pipeline.”
While president of Roche Laboratories, Holubiak led the organization in the launch of oncology and antibiotic products including Xeloda for the treatment of breast and colorectal cancer, and Rocephin, the most successful injectable cephalosporin antibiotic at the time.