Lyon (69), 9 November 2020. The French startup, specialised in inflammatory diseases, is proud to expand its reach by welcoming a new member, Elmar Schnee, in its strategic committee. An important step for the development of the company, after the recent closing of a relevant financial round and the launch of its first clinical study.

Elmar Schnee has recently joined KUSTE BIOPHARMA Strategic Committee as Independent Board Member.
Having a Master Degree in Marketing and General Management, Elmar Schnee has more than 30 years experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector.
After holding various global management positions at Fisons, Migliare Kaplan Associates, Sanofi and UCB he joined 2003 Merck KGaA as Executive Chairman Merck Sante France in Lyon. In 2006, Elmar Schnee was appointed as General Partner and Member of the Executive Board at Merck KGaA being responsible for the world-wide pharmaceutical business. He was also CEO of Merck Serono from its creation to 2010.
From 2011 until 2015 he was Chairman, CEO and board member of Cardiorentis AG. From 2016 to 2018 he was Management Advisor and COO at Mindmaze SA.
Currently Elmar Schnee serves as Chairman of listed Santhera and Calliditas and is a board member of Jazz Pharmaceuticals. He is also founder and board member of several private companies.

« I am honored to have joined the Board of KUSTE BIOPHARMA, which combines experienced leadership with an innovative pipeline. Since it’s inception in Oct 2019 the company has made significant achievemnts as it is now in a clinical phase with its lead molecule » said Elmar Schnee.

This important step in the development of the company comes in parallel with the launch of its first clinical trial. KUSTE BIOPHARMA is currently conducting a clinical study ( “An Open Label, Phase 1/2a Trial to Evaluate the Safety, Tolerability, Pharmacokinetics, and Efficacy of KU002 Given as Intravesical Instillations in Subjects with Bladder Pain Syndrome/Interstitial Cystitis (BPS/IC), registration number 2020-001729-29 on the EudraCT website) to explore the effects of brimapitide (KU002) in patients who suffer from BPS/IC.
The study is currently approved and recruiting patients in the Netherlands.

Bladder Pain Syndrome/Interstitial cystitis (BPS/IC) causes pain in the bladder region, especially during voiding, and also causes frequent and urgent urination. Patients exprience negative impact on psychological well-being, social functioning, and overall quality of life (QoL), and have limited treatment options.
Brimapitide (KU002) is an investigational anti-inflammatory compound exerting its effect in the c-Jun N-terminal kinases (JNK) pathway, which is central to the inflammatory cascade and may serve as a modulator for IC disease pathology and symptomatology.
Early studies in a model of IC in rats demonstrated an effect to increase the pain threshold.

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KUSTE BIOPHARMA is a new biopharmaceutical Clinical Stage company founded by seasoned life sciences entrepreneurs.
The company holds an exclusive worldwide license for the therapeutic use of compounds in inflammatory diseases, with molecules having achieved extensive phase 2 and phase 3 results in the field of inflammatory diseases of eyes and ears.
KUSTE BIOPHARMA wants to expand the use of these molecules to inflammatory urological diseases whose medical needs are currently unmet, such as interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome (IC/PBS).
Existing clinical data also support other possible developments, for example on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
KUSTE BIOPHARMA has closed a relevant financial round to launch Phase 2 clinical studies  on interstitial cystitis / painful bladder syndrome (IC/PBS) and preclinical on other applications.

PRESS CONTACT
Nathalie de Valleuil
nathalie.devalleuil@kustebiopharma.com