The French drugmaker is banking on the wealth of expertise that Houman Ashrafian brings as both a scientist and biotech entrepreneur to drive forward its R&D efforts.

Apellis’s pegcetacoplan – approved for two other indications – will not go forward in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis after a Phase II failure, two days after Wave Life made a similar call in the neurodegenerative disease.

The company announced detailed data for the drug in the HEALEY-ALS Platform Trial, where the cohort of the Phase II/III study testing it nevertheless failed to meet the primary endpoint.

Pridopidine is the latest ALS drug candidate to miss the primary endpoint in the HEALEY-ALS platform study, but the S1R agonist did indicate potential benefits in speech and a key biomarker of the disease.