NephroGenex, Inc. (Nasdaq:NRX), a pharmaceutical company focused on the development of therapeutics to treat kidney disease, today announced the appointment of leading experts in nephrology to its newly formed Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). The SAB will serve as a strategic resource to NephroGenex as it continues to develop the Company’s novel drug candidates to treat kidney disease.

Composition of NephroGenex’s Scientific Advisory Board

  • George L. Bakris, M.D., Hon. DSc – Director and Professor of Medicine at the ASH Comprehensive Hypertension Center in the Department of Medicine at the University of Chicago; Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Nephrology; Editor-in-Chief of Up-to-Date, Nephrology and Hypertension sections; Associate Editor of The American Diabetes Association publication, Diabetes Care
  • Csaba P. Kovesdy, M.D. – The Fred Hatch Professor of Medicine in Nephrology and Director of the Clinical Outcomes and Clinical Trials Program at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center; Chief of Nephrology at the Memphis VA Medical Center
  • Julia Lewis, M.D. (non-voting advisor) – Vice President, Collaborative Study Group (CSG); Member of the FDA Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee; Principal Investigator at the Vanderbilt Nephrology and Renal Transplant Clinic; Professor of Medicine in the Division of Nephrology at Vanderbilt University; Director of the Renal Fellowship Training Program at Vanderbilt University
  • Peter A. McCullough, M.D., M.P.H. – Vice Chief of Medicine at Baylor University Medical Center; Principal Faculty in internal medicine for the Texas A & M University Health Sciences Center; Chair of the National Kidney Foundation’s Kidney Early Evaluation Program (KEEP)
  • Chirag R. Parikh, M.D., Ph.D. – Professor of Medicine and Director of the Program of Applied Translational Research in the Department of Medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine; Professor in the Clinical Epidemiology Research Center at the VA Connecticut Health Care System
  • Dr. Jaikrishna Patel, BSc(Hons), MBBS(Hons), MRCP(UK) – Chief Scientific Officer, NephroGenex
  • J. Wesley Fox, Ph.D. – Co-Founder and Advisor, NephroGenex

“We are honored to welcome these highly respected researchers and specialists who have influenced the management of kidney disease to our Scientific Advisory Board,” said Pierre Legault, CEO and President of NephroGenex. “We look forward to their invaluable support and leadership as we continue to make progress on our pipeline of novel treatments for diabetic nephropathy and acute kidney injury. Dr. Jaikrishna Patel, Chief Scientific Officer, and Dr. Wesley Fox, Co-Founder and Advisor to NephroGenex, will also join the Scientific Advisory Board.”

Dr. George L. Bakris M.D., Hon. DSc

Dr. Bakris has published over 700 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters in the areas of diabetic kidney disease, hypertension and progression of nephropathy. He currently serves as a special government expert to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the FDA Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee. He chaired the first National Kidney Foundation Consensus report on blood pressure and impact on renal disease progression, and served on many national guideline committees, including the American Diabetes Association Clinical Practice Guideline Committee. Previously, he served as the President of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology and the American Society of Hypertension. Dr. Bakris received his medical degree from the Rosalind Franklin School of Medicine. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine and completed fellowships in Nephrology and Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Chicago.

Dr. Csaba P. Kovesdy, M.D.

Dr. Kovesdy has published research in over 260 peer-reviewed articles, in addition to numerous abstracts and book chapters. His research interests in nephrology are centered on epidemiology and outcomes, cardiovascular risk factors, metabolic abnormalities, and race-ethnicity, in addition to bone and mineral disorders in pre-dialysis chronic kidney disease. He is currently the Principal Investigator on several studies in these areas and frequently lectures at both national and international medical conferences. Dr. Kovesdy obtained his medical degree from the University of Pécs Medical School in Hungary, and completed his internal medicine residency at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. He then completed his nephrology fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Nephrology, and a member of the International Society of Nephrology.

Dr. Julia Lewis, M.D.

Dr. Lewis is a nephrology specialist and researcher, holding multiple roles on the executive committee of the Collaborative Study Group (CSG) for the past twenty years. She has served as head of several NIH and industry-sponsored oversight and advisory panels and has published research in over 200 peer-reviewed journals. She currently sits on the FDA Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee and as the Principal Investigator at the Vanderbilt Nephrology and Renal Transplant Clinic, she has led protocol and form design, intervention, hypertension management, outcome classification and publication committees. She is the Principal Investigator for NephroGenex’s ongoing PYR-311 (CSG-17) Phase 3 study. Dr. Lewis received her medical degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She also completed fellowships at the University of Texas and completed her residency at the Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago.

Dr. Peter A. McCullough, M.D., M.P.H.

Dr. McCullough directs cardiovascular education and research for the Baylor Health Care System and functions as Vice Chief of Medicine at Baylor University Medical Center. He is a Principal Faculty in internal medicine for the Texas A&M University Health Sciences Center and is an expert on the role of chronic kidney disease as a cardiovascular risk state, with over 1,000 publications. His works have appeared in multiple medical journals including the New England Journal of Medicine and Journal of the American Medical Association. In 2013, he was honored with the International Vicenza Award for Critical Care Nephrology for his outstanding contribution and dedication to the emerging problem of cardiorenal syndromes. Dr. McCullough is the current Chair of KEEP, the National Kidney Foundation’s Kidney Early Evaluation Program, which is the nation’s largest community screening effort for chronic diseases. He received his medical degree from University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Washington in Seattle. He completed a cardiology fellowship as Chief Fellow at William Beaumont Hospital, and received a master’s degree in public health from the University of Michigan.

Dr. Chirag R. Parikh, M.D.

Dr. Parikh conducts an active patient-oriented research program investigating the translational and epidemiological aspects of acute kidney injury (AKI) and other kidney-related disorders. He is the Founder and Principal Investigator of the NIH-sponsored Translational Research Investigating Biomarker Endpoints in Acute Kidney Injury (TRIBE-AKI) consortium, which has conducted three large studies for validating novel kidney injury biomarkers in cardiac surgery, kidney transplantation and hepatorenal syndrome settings. Currently, he is also developing biomarkers for diabetic kidney disease using archived samples from large diabetes trials including VA-NEPHRON-D and ACCORD. Dr. Parikh has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed papers, 50 book chapters and reviews, and has given numerous lectures at scientific meetings and academic institutions. He has received the National Junior Physician Investigator Award from the American Federation of Medical Research and the Outstanding Investigator Award from the Society of Clinical Investigation. He received his medical degree from the University of Mumbai and completed his residency in internal medicine at Nassau University and SUNY in Stony Brook. He completed a fellowship in Nephrology and Hypertension at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, where he also received a PhD in Clinical Investigation and Translational Research.

About NephroGenex, Inc.

NephroGenex (Nasdaq: NRX) is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on developing therapeutics to treat kidney diseases. Since our inception, we have collaborated with the leading scientific experts to build a portfolio of intellectual property and novel drug candidates. Our clinical program has been designed and implemented in collaboration with world leading clinical investigators in kidney disease. Our product pipeline includes an oral formulation of Pyridorin, which is being developed as a chronic, therapeutic agent to slow the progression of diabetic nephropathy, as well as an intravenous formulation of Pyridorin to treat acute kidney injury.