Company OverviewAcelRX Pharmaceuticals Inc.
AcelRx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ACRX) is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative therapies for the treatment of moderate-to-severe acute pain. The Company’s product candidates, DSUVIA™ (known as DZUVEO outside of the United States) and ZALVISO®, are designed to deliver sufentanil, a strong opioid analgesic, via a non-invasive, sublingual formulation in medical supervised settings
DSUVIA is designed to deliver sublingual tablets containing 30 mcg sufentanil via a disposable, pre-filled, single-dose applicator. The Phase 3 clinical program has completed and assessed the investigational product in the treatment of moderate-to-severe acute pain in patients who had undergone surgery or who presented to an emergency room with trauma or injury. In clinical studies, DSUVIA demonstrated reductions in pain intensity as early as 15-to-30 minutes after the start of dosing and the most common adverse events included nausea, headache, dizziness, and vomiting. DSUVIA was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on November of 2018.
ZALVISO is designed to deliver sublingual tablets containing 15 mcg sufentanil via a novel hand-held, pre-programmed, patient-controlled analgesia system. Three Phase 3 clinical trials have been completed in patients who had undergone major abdominal or orthopedic surgeries. A fourth study (IAP312) is underway to further evaluate the overall performance of the ZALVISO System in post-surgical patients. ZALVISO is currently approved by the European Commission for the management of acute moderate-to-severe post-operative pain in adult patients in a hospital setting, and is marketed by Grünenthal Group, AcelRx's licensee in Europe and Australia. In the United States and other geographies, ZALVISO remains an investigational product.
Speaker BioCEO
AcelRX Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Mr. Angotti was appointed chief executive officer and a member of the company’s board of directors in March 2017.
Mr. Angotti brings over two decades of experience leading executive and commercial teams at public and private life sciences companies, most recently as CEO of XenoPort, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of treatments for neuropathic pain and other neurological disorders.
During his tenure at XenoPort, Mr. Angotti was involved in the re-acquisition of Horizant from GSK and implemented a successful re-branding and re-launch strategy leading to XenoPort’s acquisition by Arbor Pharmaceuticals, LLC in 2016.
Previous to joining XenoPort, Mr. Angotti held senior sales and marketing positions at Reliant Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from 2001 – 2008. In his role as senior vice president of sales and marketing at Reliant, Mr. Angotti was integrally involved in the company’s M&A discussions that concluded with Reliant’s acquisition by GSK in 2007. Mr. Angotti began his career in the life sciences industry at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., where he worked from 1991 – 2001 in sales and operations positions of increasing responsibility.
Mr. Angotti earned a Bachelor of Science with a concentration in business management from Cornell University in 1990 and a Masters of Business Administration with honors in 2000 from Columbia University.
Speaker BioCo-Founder & Chief Medical Officer
AcelRX Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Dr. Palmer has served as director and chief medical officer of AcelRx since she co-founded the company in July 2005.
Dr. Palmer has dedicated her career to researching and treating pain, first as an anesthesiologist at UCSF and in her current role as chief medical officer and a member of the board of directors of AcelRx, a company she co-founded in July 2005.
Dr. Palmer gained extensive experience in the treatment of pain during her tenure as the director of the UCSF Pain Center for Advanced Research and Education (PainCARE) from 2005 to 2009, during which time the American Pain Society named the UCSF Pain Management Center and PainCARE jointly as one of only six centers of excellence nationwide. Prior to PainCARE, from 1999 to 2005, she was medical director of the UCSF Pain Management Center, which uses a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach to treat patients with various stages and types of complex acute and chronic pain. From 1996 to 1999, Dr. Palmer worked as a faculty member at UCSF, where she conducted research on basic science mechanisms of pain transmission in her NIH-funded laboratory.
In 1994 she co-founded Omeros Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company developing small-molecule and protein therapeutics aimed at improving pain management and clinical outcomes of patients undergoing a wide range of surgical and medical procedures. Dr. Palmer remains a consultant to Omeros.
Dr. Palmer received a medical degree and a doctorate in neuroscience at Stanford University, and continued on to the University of California, San Francisco for her anesthesia residency. She has an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering..
Dr. Palmer is Board certified in anesthesiology and pain medicine by the American Board of Anesthesiology.
