3 September 2020 - - US-based biotechnology company LB Pharmaceuticals Inc has appointed Dr. Anna Eramo as chief medical officer, the company said.

Eramo joins LB from Lundbeck, where she led US Clinical and Medical Affairs with primary responsibilities extending across Lundbeck's entire US psychiatric and neurology portfolio of products.

She will assume a leadership role in overseeing the clinical development of LB-102, including a Phase 2 study in schizophrenia planned for mid-2021.

Eramo served as the Clinical and Medical Affairs Head of the US division of Lundbeck since 2017.

Prior to this appointment, and starting in 2007, Anna served in various senior roles at Lundbeck in both Copenhagen and Milan.

Throughout her career at Lundbeck, Eramo worked closely with both outside collaborators and key opinion leaders to shape the clinical development of many of Lundbeck's key psychiatric products, including brexpriprazole, vortioxetine, and Abilify Maintena.

From 2003 to 2007, Eramo held a number of positions at AstraZeneca Italy and Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY).

Eramo holds both an academic degree in medicine and a specialty degree in psychiatry and psychotherapy from the University Medical School of Naples, Italy.

LB-102, or N-methyl amisulpride, is a patented benzamide designed to be an improved version of amisulpride, a drug successfully used to treat schizophrenia in Europe for decades. LB-102 was designed to improve on amisulpride's low permeability across the blood brain barrier.

LB-102 has the potential to offer schizophrenia patients the benefits of amisulpride at a lower dose than amisulpride.

The company recently completed a Phase 1 study in healthy volunteers (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT04187560).

A first-in-patient, placebo-controlled, Phase 2 study designed to test the effectiveness of LB-102 in the treatment of schizophrenia is planned for mid 2021.

LB is a clinical stage CNS-focused life science company devoted to commercializing novel and improved versions of successful CNS treatments used extensively overseas but never developed, approved, or marketed, in the United States.

LB-102, or N-methyl amisulpride, is the company's lead clinical asset. LB was founded in 2015 and is based in New York City.