Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Novartis vet named first CEO for VC-backed Zafgen

Zafgen Inc. says it has brought on 20-year Novartis AG veteran and metabolic disease expert Thomas Hughes to become the company’s first CEO. Zafgen is focused on obesity and other metabolic disorders using a technique to shrink fat cells by targeting the vascular and growth mechanisms of the tissue.

Hughes previously led Novartis’ type 2 diabetes and metabolic drug discovery program at the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research. He also spent seven years as the head of Novartis’ overall diabetes and metabolism disease areas.

Zafgen is a Cambridge-based biotech founded in 2005. It has a scientific advisory board composed of obesity experts, which includes Third Rock Ventures partner and former obesity researcher Lou Tartaglia and Randy Seeley, a professor and associate director at the Obesity Research Center, the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

Zafgen was co-founded by Maria Rupnick, an instructor and cardiologist at Children’s Hospital Boston and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The private company is backed by both Third Rock Ventures and Atlas Venture in Waltham. Third Rock Ventures partner Kevin Starr led Zafgen on an interim basis before Hughes was brought on board.

In August, high-speed chemistry technology maker Anthill Technologies Inc. entered into an agreement with Zafgen Inc., to use Anthill Technology’s ACOS chemical synthesis and purification tools to help the company develop lead compounds using its approach to target vascular tissue.

Obesity has become a global epidemic and has been shown to cause serious health problems such as heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. The United States ranks No. 1 in highest rates of obesity (32 percent of adults) in the developed world, according the World Health Organization.