Abliva has announced that the Board of Directors, in agreement with Erik Kinnman, the current CEO, has appointed Ellen K. Donnelly as the company’s new CEO.

Ellen K. Donnelly will lead Abliva’s development into a commercial biopharmaceutical company. She succeeded Erik Kinnman, around February 3rd.

“Abliva plans to enter a Phase II/III study with its lead candidate KL1333 later in the year. This signifies a new phase in the company’s development, where Abliva will lay the groundwork for commercialization activities while completing clinical development and preparing for a potential approval. There is also an opportunity to leverage increasing interest from specialized investors internationally in this area, especially in the USA. We strongly believe that Ellen has the qualifications and experience to successfully lead these crucial efforts,” says David Laskow-Pooley, Chairman of Abliva’s Board of Directors.

Ellen K. Donnelly

Ellen Donnelly, a US national, is familiar with the Swedish biotech community after leading Modus Therapeutics AB (Stockholm) as CEO from 2017 to 2020. While at Modus, Ellen and the team developed a global development strategy for the company’s rare disease asset, expanded the clinical programs into the EU and US, and attracted the attention of both investors, pharmaceutical companies and investment banks in the US as the company prepared for growth.

Most recently, Ellen was CEO of the Division of Epigenetics at Juvenescence, a company focused on healthy aging, and CEO for its subsidiary company, Souvien Therapeutics, an early-stage biotech company developing therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease. Ellen’s drug development experience comes from almost a decade at Pfizer, Inc. and additional time in biotech and management consulting in Boston, MA. Ellen has a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Yale University.

“I am delighted to join Abliva at this important stage in the company’s development. Primary mitochondrial disease is an area where no approved medical therapies exist that can both relieve the pain and suffering, while increasing the life expectancy of the patients. Abliva’s KL1333 is a promising therapeutic that has the potential to address the high unmet medical need of many of these patients. I look forward to working with the Abliva team as we work with clinicians, patient advocacy groups and regulatory authorities to prepare KL1333 for a potential market approval and commercialization,” says Donnelly.

Photo of Ellen K. Donnelly: Modus Therapeutics