Marinus Pharmaceuticals Announces Formation of Scientific Advisory Board

Board includes 6 globally recognized seizure disorder experts

RADNOR, Pa., April 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: MRNS), a pharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of innovative therapeutics to treat rare seizure disorders, today announced the formation of a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) with the appointment of six leading experts in clinical neurology and seizure disorders: Jacqueline French, M.D., Lawrence Hirsch, M.D., Aatif Husain, M.D., Michael Rogawski M.D., Ph.D., Eugen Trinka, M.D. and Henrikas Vaitkevicius, M.D.

“We believe the strength and enthusiasm of our newly-formed scientific advisory board, with an expertise in clinical development and global registration strategies for novel anti-epileptic drugs, is a testament to our commitment to ganaxolone in patients with severe seizure disorders,” said Scott Braunstein, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Marinus. “The insights from these scientific thought-leaders will be invaluable as we approach key milestones in our epilepsy programs.”

Marinus SAB members will include:

Jacqueline French, M.D., Professor of Neurology in the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at NYU Langone School of Medicine and Founder/Director of the Epilepsy Study Consortium, an academic group that has performed several early phase clinical trials in epilepsy. Dr. French trained in Neurology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and did her fellowship training in EEG and epilepsy at Mount Sinai hospital and Yale University. Over the past 20 years Dr. French has served as the Principle investigator on several trials for new epilepsy drugs and has focused her research efforts developing new therapeutics for epilepsy and novel methodologies for clinical trials. Dr. French, who serves as Chief Medical/Innovation Officer for the Epilepsy Foundation, has been active in creating guidelines for the American Academy of Neurology and the International League Against Epilepsy. She is the editor of three books and has authored over 300 articles and chapters.

Lawrence Hirsch, M.D., Professor of Neurology, Chief of Division of Epilepsy and Electroencephalography (EEG), and Co-Director of the Yale Comprehensive Epilepsy Center. He has held leadership positions at the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society (ACNS), American Epilepsy Society, American Academy of Neurology and the Epilepsy Foundation, and is founder and former chair of the Critical Care EEG Monitoring Research Consortium, which now includes more than 50 centers across North America. He is lead author of the ACNS guideline on critical care EEG terminology, and has been an active researcher throughout his career, having published more than 150 original research manuscripts and more than 100 reviews, editorials or book chapters on topics including status epilepticus, EEG, and antiepileptic drugs. Dr. Hirsch is co-author of the first-ever atlas on EEG in critical care.  

Aatif Husain, M.D., Professor of Neurology and Division Chief of Epilepsy, Sleep, and Clinical Neurophysiology at the Duke University School of Medicine, is a world-renowned expert in clinical neurophysiology, with experience serving as president of the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society, treasurer of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Through his research Dr. Husain has been highly influential in the developing treatments for seizures, with landmark studies on the treatment of refractory seizures and non-convulsive status epilepticus. Amongst the more than 100 publications and nine books he has authored, he is also the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology.

Michael Rogawski M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Neurology and Pharmacology at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine is an internationally recognized expert on drug discovery and development for epilepsy, with a research focus on neuroactive steroids. He serves as lead of the University of California Drug Discovery Consortium. Dr. Rogawski was formerly chief of the Epilepsy Research Section at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. (pharmacology) from Yale and trained in neurology at Johns Hopkins. He has served on the board of directors of the American Epilepsy Society and has been a member of advisory panels to the National Institutes of Health. He has authored more than 275 research papers, reviews, and book chapters, and edited five books.

Eugen Trinka, M.D., Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology, Christian Doppler University Hospital at the Paracelsus Medical University in Salzburg, Austria. Dr. Trinka’s research interests include clinical epileptology with a focus on epidemiology, prognosis, epilepsy surgery, and status epilepticus. He is the founding member of the European Epilepsy Consortium, dedicated to clinical drug trials in the field of epilepsy and has authored more than 480 scientific publications and book chapters, including the seminal paper describing the diagnostic criteria for non-convulsive status epilepticus called the Salzburg criteria. Dr. Trinka is the current President of the Austrian Society of Neurology, past president of the Austrian Society for Epilepsy, Austrian Society for Clinical Neurophysiology and the Society of Epilepsy Surgery Centres in Germany, Austria. He has been elected as Chair of ILAE-EUROPE in 2017. He also serves on the ILAE Task force of Classification of Status Epilepticus, the Commission on Medical Treatment, the ILAE Working group on pre-clinical drug discovery, and the ILAE Task Force on Regulatory affairs.

Henrikas Vaitkevicius, M.D., is an Attending Neurologist in the Neurocritical Care, Hospital Neurology, Neurological Infections, Inflammatory Diseases, and Stroke Divisions of Brigham and Women’s Hospital Department of Neurology. Dr. Vaitkevicius, who is also an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, received his graduate and medical school training at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. He completed his neurology residency and neurocritical care fellowship at Brigham & Women’s and Mass General Hospital in Boston, MA. Dr. Vaitkevicius has appeared in 38 peer-reviewed publications, five non-peer reviewed scientific or medical materials, and in 2015 was an ad hoc reviewer for the New England Journal of Medicine. He serves as the Director of Brain Hub: Studio for Research and Innovation in Critical Care Neurology where he focuses on fostering collaborations among academic departments and pharmaceutical industries to bring novel treatments to the bedside.

About Marinus Pharmaceuticals
Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a pharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of innovative therapeutics to treat rare seizure disorders. Ganaxolone is a positive allosteric modulator of GABAA receptors that acts on a well-characterized target in the brain known to have anti-seizure, anti-depressant and anti-anxiety effects. Ganaxolone is being developed in IV and oral dose forms intended to maximize therapeutic reach to adult and pediatric patient populations in both acute and chronic care settings. For more information visit www.marinuspharma.com. Please follow us on Twitter: @MarinusPharma.

Forward-Looking Statements

To the extent that statements contained in this press release are not descriptions of historical facts regarding Marinus, they are forward-looking statements reflecting the current beliefs and expectations of management made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “may”, “will”, “expect”, “anticipate”, “estimate”, “intend”, “believe”, and similar expressions (as well as other words or expressions referencing future events, conditions or circumstances) are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements contained in this press release include, among others, statements regarding our interpretation of preclinical studies, development plans for our product candidate, including the development of dose forms, the clinical development schedule and milestones, the ability to complete enrollment in our clinical trials, interpretation of scientific basis for ganaxolone use, timing for availability and release of data, the safety, and potential efficacy and therapeutic potential of our product candidate. Forward-looking statements in this release involve substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause our clinical development programs, future results, performance or achievements to differ significantly from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, the uncertainties inherent in the conduct of clinical trials, the timing of clinical trials, enrollment in clinical trials, availability of data from clinical trials, expectations for regulatory approvals, the attainment of clinical trial results that will be supportive of regulatory approvals, and other matters, including the development of formulations of ganaxolone, unanticipated costs and expenses, our ability to raise additional capital, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business and the availability or potential availability of alternative products or treatments for conditions targeted by the Company that could affect the availability or commercial potential of our drug candidates. Marinus undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. For a further description of the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those expressed in these forward-looking statements, as well as risks relating to the business of the Company in general, see filings Marinus has made with the Securities and Exchange Commission.