HOUSTON, Aug. 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aravive, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARAV), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing treatments designed to halt the progression of life-threatening diseases, including cancer and fibrosis, today announced that Jay Shepard intends to step down as President, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and member of the Board of Directors for family medical reasons. The Board of Directors is commencing a search for his successor. Mr. Shepard plans to serve in his current role until a successor is appointed.
“We are truly grateful to Jay for his commitment to the company and his seven years of skilled leadership, including launching Aravive on a promising path by advancing and expanding our clinical programs,” said Srinivas Akkaraju, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman of the Board of Directors. “It is admirable to see a seasoned executive prioritizing his family health needs and we at Aravive respect and support his decision to step down once the Board’s search for a successor is complete.”
Mr. Shepard commented, “I am excited for the future of Aravive and am really pleased with the progress we have made since the merger last October. I believe our approach of targeting the AXL/GAS6 signaling pathway has a potential to make a clinically meaningful difference in the lives of patients with cancer and fibrosis. With a firm foundation and strategy in place at Aravive, I plan to transition from my leadership role in order to dedicate more time to the needs of my family.”
About Aravive
Aravive, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARAV) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing treatments designed to halt the progression of life-threatening diseases, including cancer and fibrosis. Aravive’s lead product candidate, AVB-500, is an ultra-high affinity decoy protein that targets the GAS6-AXL signaling pathway. By capturing serum GAS6, AVB-500 starves the AXL pathway of its signal, potentially halting the biological programming that promotes disease progression. AXL receptor signaling plays an important role in multiple types of malignancies by promoting metastasis, cancer cell survival, resistance to treatments, and immune suppression. The GAS6-AXL signaling pathway also plays a significant role in fibrogenesis. Aravive has initiated the Phase 1b portion of a Phase 1b/2 clinical trial of AVB-500 combined with standard of care therapies in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, and intends to expand development into additional oncology and fibrotic indications. Aravive is based in Houston, Texas and received a Product Development Award from the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) in 2016. Aravive was one of FierceBiotech's Fierce 15 in 2017. For more information, please visit www.aravive.com.
