Regel Therapeutics’ Board of Directors has named Stephen J. Farr, PhD, as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Dr. Farr served as President and CEO of Zogenix from 2015 until its acquisition by UCB in 2022. He transformed Zogenix into a leading rare disease company, highlighted by the approval of FINTEPLA in the US, Europe, and Japan.

Dr. Farr initially served as Zogenix's President and Chief Operating Officer since its founding in 2006. Previously, Dr. Farr was Sr. Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Aradigm Corp. From 1986 to 1995, Dr. Farr held tenured academic positions at Cardiff University, United Kingdom, concentrating in advanced drug delivery and biopharmaceutics.

"We are excited to have Steve lead Regel Therapeutics and believe that his vision and experience will build a strong team focused on patient outcomes," said Dr Megan McGill, Regel's Interim CEO. 

Orrin Devinsky, managing partner of PhiFund, which funded Regel's seed round, added, "Steve Farr is among the most respected leaders in biotech, he has the unique ability to understand and connect with rare disease communities and drive drug development to meet patient needs. We have the utmost confidence in Steve and look forward to the next chapters in Regel's future."

"I am thrilled to join Regel, a company that has pioneered cell-specific gene control. Regel has a powerful yet elegant scientific approach to cure genetic disorders that lack disease-modifying therapies. The talented and passionate team has made key scientific innovations to regulate gene expression to restore normal cellular functions. Regel's pipeline includes proprietary programs as well as a research collaboration with Sarepta Therapeutics," said Dr. Farr.

Dr. Farr is on the board of directors of Mahzi Therapeutics, a preclinical company focused on developing treatments for under-served rare genetic neurodevelopmental disorders. He is also co-founder and CEO of Ataraxia Therapeutics, a seed-stage company discovering small molecule therapeutics for a novel CNS target. 

Previously, he was a board member at Tevard Biosciences, a preclinical company developing tRNA based therapeutics to treat rare genetic diseases and director at SteadyMed, until its acquisition by United Therapeutics.