Immune Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company based in Fort Lee, New Jersey, has named Gary Rabin as its President and interim Chief Executive Officer. He also joins the Board of Directors. The company trades on the OTC Pink market as IMNPQ. It announced the change on March 7, 2019.
Rabin takes over from Tony Fiorino, MD, PhD, who had been President and interim CEO. Fiorino has stepped down as an officer but will stay on the board.
The move follows a court filing. On February 17, 2019, Immune sought chapter 11 protection with a voluntary petition. The case, No. 19-13273, sits in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey.
Fiorino said the company now needs leaders who know corporate restructuring, asset sales and bankruptcy well. In his view, Immune was lucky to find Rabin, since he brings a lot of relevant experience. Rabin has consulted for Immune before, Fiorino noted. As a result, he already knows its programs, its capital structure, the restructuring so far and the chapter 11 process. As a director, Fiorino plans to concentrate on selling or partnering the company’s clinical assets.
Rabin, 53, has spent 32 years in finance, investing, biotech management and financial restructuring. Since 2015 he has been Managing Member of Vine Holdings Group. Before that, he was Chairman and CEO of Advanced Cell Technology, Inc., a cell therapy company, where he led a successful financial turnaround. He has also managed three hedge funds focused on technology, media and telecom. From 1987 to 2002 he worked as a media and telecom investment banker at large firms, among them CIBC, ING Barings, UBS and First Boston.
Immune develops new treatments for immunologic and inflammatory diseases. Its lead program is bertilimumab, a first-in-class human monoclonal antibody aimed at eotaxin-1. That chemokine plays a part in immune responses and draws eosinophils to sites of inflammation. By blocking it, bertilimumab may keep eosinophils and other cells from moving in and activating. That would shut down a key inflammatory pathway in many allergic and immune conditions.
The drug has shown promising clinical activity in bullous pemphigoid. It has also been studied in allergic rhinitis and ulcerative colitis, and it may have uses in atopic dermatitis, asthma and other diseases.
