Daniel P. Van Kammen, MD, Phd, to lead CHDI Huntington's Disease Clinical Development Effort

HD Lighthouse Contributing Editor's Comment: This is exciting news! The hiring of a Chief Medical Officer indicates that CHDI's compounds are nearing readiness for clinical trials. Dr. van Kammen is very well qualified with experience in central nervous system diseases, clinical trials, and biomarkers.

As explained by Robi Blumenstein, "'clinical development' means everything to do with evaluating potential therapeutics in the clinic with a view to having the FDA approve them as drugs. This runs the gamut from developing measures of disease progression so that we can conduct trials earlier and more efficiently, through safety, tolerability and efficacy studies."

Dr. van Kammen will be working with the Huntington Study Group, the European HD Network and the FDA. He will be a wonderful addition to CHDI's team.

For other recent news from CHDI, read here: Research Update from the 2007 HDSA convention

-- Marsha L. Miller, Ph.D.
Posted to the HDL: 02 Aug 2007

Daniel P. van Kammen MD, PhD to Lead CHDI, Inc.’S Huntington Disease Clinical Development Effort

July 26, 2007 – MRSSI, Inc. announced today that Daniel P. van Kammen MD, PhD has joined as Chief Medical Officer. As such he will be responsible for the clinical development efforts of CHDI, Inc. CHDI was established in 2003 as a non-profit entity pursuing a biotech approach to finding therapies for Huntington disease (HD).

Dr. van Kammen brings almost 10 year of CNS industrial biopharmaceutical drug development experience and more than 25 years of psychopharmacological experience to CHDI. Formerly, he was Global Medical Leader at Johnson & Johnson, Raritan, NJ., responsible for Phase 1 through 4 programs; Sr. Distinguished Scientist and Head of CNS Phase 1 and 2a at Aventis (now sanofi-aventis); and most recently vice-president of Clinical Development at ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. where his responsibilities included oversight of multiple Phase 1 and 2 trials for schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease psychosis and sleep maintenance insomnia. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. van Kammen was Professor of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh Medical School, Pittsburgh, PA, and CMO at the Highland Drive VAMC, Pittsburgh, where his schizophrenia and sleep research was funded by the Dept. of Veteran Affairs, NIMH and private foundations. Before moving to Pittsburgh, he built a multidisciplinary pharmacological and biochemical research program of schizophrenia at the National Institutes of Mental Health, NIH Clinical Center, in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. Dr. van Kammen is presently Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University.

Dr. van Kammen received his Medical Degree from the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands, where he also received his PhD (in Pharmacology). He completed his psychiatric residency at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD, and is certified in Psychiatry by the American and Dutch Boards of Psychiatry and Neurology.

Dr. van Kammen is known for his careful pharmacological and biomarker studies in schizophrenia. He conducted multiple pharmacological studies of proof of mechanism, proof of concept, treatment response and relapse prediction and efficacy in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Biomarker studies ranged from studies of cognition, sleep, psychophysiology and brain imaging to studies of plasma, CSF and blood constituents, such as monoamines, peptides, amino-acids, endocrines, interleukins and membrane phospholipids. In addition, he studied affective disorders and PTSD.

Dr. van Kammen is a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) and the Collegium Internationale Neuropsychopharmacologicum (CINP), and a member of many other national and international professional organizations. He has published over 220 refereed journal articles on the clinical, biochemical and treatment aspects of schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders, and over 100 book chapters, scholarly reviews and editorials. He edited several books on mental health research.

“I am very excited to have been selected to lead this important clinical development effort. I am confident that we will be bringing novel compounds successfully into the clinic within the coming years in an effort to find treatments for HD. It is a privilege to work with clinicians, and basic and translational scientists who have made such critical contributions to HD research.” Dr. van Kammen said upon accepting this role. Robi Blumenstein, President of MRSSI, said “CHDI is fortunate to have attracted a person with Dr. van Kammen’s depth of clinical experience. He will further our mission to help bring treatments that prevent or slow the progression of Huntington disease to patients as quickly as possible.”

About Huntington Disease

Huntington disease is a familial disease, passed from parent to child through a mutation in a gene. Each child of an HD parent has a 50-50 chance of inheriting the HD gene which causes programmed degeneration of brain cells and results in emotional disturbance, loss of intellectual faculties and uncontrolled movements. Most people with HD develop the symptoms at midlife but in some people onset occurs in infancy or old age. The average survival time after onset is approximately fifteen to twenty years. It is estimated that about one in every 10,000 persons has the HD gene. At this time, there is no way to stop or reverse the course of Huntington disease.

About CHDI, Inc.

CHDI, Inc. is a non-profit organization pursuing a biotech approach to rapidly discover and develop drugs that prevent or slow Huntington disease. Through collaborations with industrial and academic partners, CHDI, Inc. participates in all aspects of drug discovery and development from high-throughput screening to clinical development. For more information about CHDI, Inc. and its collaborative programs please see www.chdi-inc.org.

About MRSSI, Inc.

MRSSI, Inc. was established in 2002 to provide administrative, management and grantmaking services to CHDI, Inc. and other non-profit organizations dedicated to Huntington disease research.

Source:

printer friendly version

	Read the HDAC/HDLighthouse Forum. Post your comments