Deborah Dunsire to lead Fidelity-backed EnVivo through Alzheimer's ... - Boston Business Journal (blog)

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Former Millennium Pharma CEO Deborah Dunsire will head Fidelity-backed EnVivo, which has drug candidates in trials to treat Alzheimer's and schizophrenia.

Millennium Pharmaceuticals' former chief executive, Dr. Deborah Dunsire ^[1] , will head EnVivo Pharmaceuticals, the Watertown, Mass., biotech announced Thursday morning. Backed by Fidelity Investments ^[2] , EnVivo has a potential treatments for Alzheimer's and schizophrenia in clinical trials.

In February, EnVivo announced the start of a Phase 3 clinical trial for EVP-6124 ^[3] , an alpha-7 agonist, as a drug candidate to treat schizophrenia. The company plans to announce a Phase 3 Alzheimer's trial of EVP-6124, later this year, a spokeswoman said. EnVivo's other Alzheimer's drug candidate, EVP-0962, is a selective gamma secretase modulator. It entered Phase 2 clinical trials in January ^[4] .

Dunsire was CEO of cancer-focused, Cambridge, Mass.-based Millennium from 2005 to 2013. In 2008, the company was acquired by Takeda and became Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company.

She replaces interim CEO Robert Weisskoff ^[5] , a partner at EnVivo investor Fidelity Biosciences ^[6] , who took over the chief executive's role in March ^[7] following the departure of former CEO Kees Been ^[8] .

Founded in 2001, EnVivo has raised at least $125 million from Fidelity ^[9] . That's the amount it announced in a 2008 Series D round of financing. The company has been quiet about its funding since then.

Clarification: An earlier version of this article did not mention that EVP-6124 is a drug candidate for Alzheimer's, in addition to schizophrenia.