Juniper Pharmaceuticals recently announced the addition of two Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) members, Linda Giudice, M.D., Ph.D., and Marianne Mann, M.D.
Guidice is a widely respected biochemist, gynecologist and endocrinologist who specializes in endometriosis, infertility and assisted reproduction, implantation, and ovulatory disorders. Mann is an independent pharmaceutical development and regulatory consultant who spent nine years at the FDA, serving as deputy director of two drug product divisions.
“Dr. Linda Giudice and Dr. Marianne Mann bring vast knowledge and well-informed perspective to our Scientific Advisory Board,” Juniper SAB Chairman Dr. Martyn Davies said in a press release. “Dr. Giudice is a leader in women’s healthcare with extensive clinical experience, while Dr. Mann has wide-ranging regulatory expertise honed both during and since her tenure at the FDA. We look forward to their input as we support Juniper’s management to advance and further expand the company’s pipeline of women’s health products.”
Giudice earned her Ph.D. in biochemistry at UCLA and her M.D. at Stanford University. She formerly chaired the FDA’s Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Reproductive Medicine Network and Specialized Cooperative Centers Program in Reproduction and Infertility Research Steering committees; and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (formerly Institute of Medicine) in 2002.
Giudice, author of more than 250 publications, is the director of the UCSF Laboratory of Human Endometrial Biology, Functional Genomics and Stem Cell Research; a Robert B. Jaffe MD Endowed Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at UCSF School of Medicine.. Her research focuses on environmental impacts on reproductive health and endometrial biology, and placental-uterine interactions.
After leaving the FDA, Mann consulted on many projects across dozens of therapeutic areas for products in various stages of development. She has served on numerous advisory and drug safety boards, and has helped prepare sponsors for FDA advisory panels.
University of South Florida researchers have showed that in a mouse model of endometriosis, normal body processes fail to properly regulate both ectopic and eutopic endometrium. And, they found, the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has potential as a therapeutic agent for women afflicted with the disease.
The study, “Effect of hydroxychloroquine and characterization of autophagy in a mouse model of endometriosis,” by A. Ruiz and colleagues, was published in the online edition of the journal Cell Death and Disease.