Augustine Therapeutics appoints Gerhard Koenig
as Chief Executive Officer as Company Prepares to Enter the Clinic
- Industry veteran Gerhard Koenig, PhD, current Executive Chairman, appointed as CEO
- Best-in-class highly selective HDAC6 inhibitor pioneer for disease-modifying treatment of neuromuscular, neurodegenerative and cardiometabolic diseases poised to enter the clinic
LEUVEN, Belgium – February 13, 2025 – Augustine Therapeutics (“Augustine” or “the Company”), a preclinical-stage biotechnology company focused on innovative therapies for neuromuscular, neurodegenerative and cardiometabolic diseases through the inhibition of the cytosolic Histone DeACetylase 6 (HDAC6) enzyme, today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Gerhard Koenig, PhD, current Executive Chairman, as Chief Executive Officer.
With more than 30 years of drug development experience, Dr. Koenig has served as a Non-Executive Director on Augustine’s Board since May 2022, and as Executive Chairman since June 2024. Gerhard was CEO and Co-founder of Arkuda Therapeutics, a Boston-based biotech company focused on the development of lysosomal function enhancers for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease. Arkuda’s portfolio of lysosomal function enhancers was acquired by Johnson & Johnson, which was announced in January 2025.
Gerhard is also a Board Member at Vigil Neuroscience (NASDAQ: VIGL), and previously served as CEO of Quartet Medicine, CSO and Senior Vice President of FORUM Pharmaceuticals, Vice President of Scientific Programs and Evaluation at Fidelity Biosciences Group (now F-Prime Capital), and in multiple senior R&D positions at Bayer AG.
Dr. Koenig succeeds Sylvain Celanire, who will continue with the company as Senior Vice President of R&D Operations.
Commenting on his appointment as CEO, Dr. Koenig said, “As Executive Chairman I have seen close up the tremendous therapeutic potential of Augustine’s best-in-class HDAC6 inhibitors to treat neurologic diseases and other high unmet-need therapeutic areas like cardiometabolic disease. Now as CEO, I am excited to lead the business as it transitions into a clinical-stage company, building on the tremendous efforts of Sylvain. I look forward to working with him and the entire Augustine team to advance the Company’s pipeline into the clinic.”
“Since joining our Board in 2022 and taking on the role of Executive Chair in July 2024, Dr. Koenig has provided instrumental guidance in shaping the future of the Company,” said Augustine Director and Managing Partner at Asabys Clara Campàs, Ph.D. “We are grateful for Sylvain’s leadership of Augustine through its formative years. Gerhard’s extensive experience leading innovative biotech companies from late-stage discovery through clinical development, as well as forging successful collaborations with global biopharmas, will now be instrumental to Augustine’s next chapter developing new therapeutic options for patients in need.”
Augustine is developing a pipeline of small molecule inhibitors of the HDAC6 enzyme, a validated target which has been heavily implicated in the pathology of neuromuscular and neurodegenerative disorders, and has therapeutic potential in cardiometabolic, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.
The Company has a pipeline of additional HDAC6i programs. The most advanced, AGT100216, a small molecule non-hydroxamic acid HDAC6 enzyme inhibitor, is poised to enter the clinic later this year for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. Augustine has two other programs in discovery targeting peripherally-restricted and blood-brain barrier-penetrant HDAC6i for undisclosed neurodegenerative and cardiometabolic indications.
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About Augustine Therapeutics
Augustine Therapeutics is a Belgian biotechnology company, founded in 2019 as a spin-off company of VIB-KU Leuven. The Company is building a portfolio of best-in-class, highly selective small molecule HDAC6 inhibitors for the treatment of severe neuromuscular, neurodegenerative and cardiometabolic diseases. Its scientific foundation originates from the ground-breaking research of Prof. Ludo Van Den Bosch from the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain and Disease Research, tackling the underlying mechanism of axonal degeneration of peripheral nerves through selective HDAC6 inhibition. For more information visit www.augustinetx.com.
Media Contacts:
Augustine Therapeutics
Gerhard Koenig, CEO
E-mail: info@augustinetx.com
ICR Healthcare
Amber Fennell / Ashley Tapp / Lindsey Neville
E-mail: AugustineTx@icrhealthcare.com
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