Fulcrum Therapeutics Appoints Patrick Horn M.D., Ph.D., as Chief Medical Officer

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 18, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Fulcrum Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: FULC), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing small molecules to improve the lives of patients with genetically defined rare diseases, today announced the appointment of Patrick Horn, M.D., Ph.D., as chief medical officer, effective immediately. Dr. Horn is a seasoned executive with over 20 years of end-to-end drug development experience spanning multiple therapeutic areas, with an emphasis on rare diseases, across both large pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Interim chief medical officer, Iain Fraser, MBChB, DPhil, will continue to serve on Fulcrum’s executive leadership team as SVP of early development. Together, Drs. Horn and Fraser will be responsible for leading clinical development and overseeing regulatory strategy and execution.

“I am very pleased to enrich our leadership team with Pat, an accomplished industry veteran who has successfully guided multiple therapies—including rare disease programs lacking existing regulatory pathways—through late clinical development, regulatory approval, and commercial launch,” said Alex C. Sapir, Fulcrum’s president and chief executive officer. “This is a key moment for Fulcrum as we continue to advance our Phase 3 REACH trial of losmapimod for patients with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy and reinitiate our Phase 1b PIONEER trial of pociredir in sickle cell disease. We believe both Pat and Iain’s complementary expertise will be invaluable as we near several pivotal milestones for our two key clinical programs and advance our early-stage pipeline.”

Dr. Horn added, “Joining Fulcrum is an exciting opportunity to bring potentially transformative therapies to patients especially as we advance towards near-term inflection points for losmapimod, a late-stage clinical program with first-to-market potential, and pociredir, a highly differentiated oral treatment option that may shift the current standard of care. Building on the encouraging clinical data generated to date, I, alongside Iain, look forward to working with the management team to deliver on the promise of Fulcrum’s differentiated pipeline of rare disease programs.”

Dr. Patrick Horn is a distinguished professional with over 20 years of experience in the field of rare disease drug development, encompassing all stages from initial research to regulatory approval and commercial launch. His most recent role was as the Chief Medical Officer at HemoShear Therapeutics, specializing in rare metabolic diseases. Previously, he held the position of Chief Medical Officer at Albireo Pharma where he led the team that achieved marketing approvals in the US and Europe for Bylvay™ in progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC). Before his tenure at Albireo, he served as the Senior Vice President of Medical and Clinical Development at Orphan Technologies, directing the advancement of novel treatments for homocystinuria. Prior to this, he was the Chief Medical Officer at Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, where he oversaw the clinical development of antibiotic candidates, including the program leading to the New Drug Application for eravacycline. Before Tetraphase, Dr. Horn led the clinical program at Dyax Corp. that resulted in the approval of Kalbitor® for the treatment of hereditary angioedema. Dr. Horn received his M.D., and Ph.D., from the University of Chicago and completed his pediatric residency at Boston Children’s Hospital. Prior to transitioning to industry, Dr. Horn was a practicing pediatrician at major academic institutions in Chicago.

About Fulcrum Therapeutics
Fulcrum Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing small molecules to improve the lives of patients with genetically defined rare diseases in areas of high unmet medical need. Fulcrum’s two lead programs in clinical development are losmapimod, a small molecule in development for the treatment of facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), and pociredir (formerly known as FTX-6058), a small molecule designed to increase expression of fetal hemoglobin and in development for the treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD). Fulcrum uses proprietary technology to identify drug targets that can modulate gene expression to treat the known root cause of gene mis-expression. For more information, visit www.fulcrumtx.com and follow us on Twitter/X (@FulcrumTx) and LinkedIn.