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Cerenis Therapeutics staff jumps 25%, plans to hire more

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

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Ann Arbor

Cerenis Therapuetics is splitting time between Ann Arbor and France in more ways than one.

The drug development company is based in France, but has a twin office in Ann Arbor. The 4-year-old firm's 26 employees are evenly split between the two locations, and its staff is up 25 percent. Ten of those employees are ex-Pfizer talent, including eight in Ann Arbor. The company's founders got their start at Esperion before starting Cerenis Therapuetics.

"The drugs we are working on now are all aimed at improving HDL production, even developing a synthetic HDL that could help prevent recurring heart attacks," says Bill Brinkerhoff, COO of Cerenis Therapeutics.

If successful, that would be the first synthetic HDL available. The so-called good choloresterol would even be able to rapidly remove dangerous plaque from heart tissue. Cerenis Therapeutics is looking at continuing clinical trails for the near term and potentially commercializing the product by 2015.

Source: Bill Brinkerhof, COO with Cerenis Therapeutics
Writer: Jon Zemke