Altimmune, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALT) has announced a significant transition in its leadership as Jerry Durso is set to succeed Vipin Garg, Ph.D., as the company's President and Chief Executive Officer effective January 1, 2026. This move follows seven years of strong leadership by Dr. Garg, who will continue to serve as an advisor to the company through June 30, 2026.
Under Dr. Garg's leadership since 2018, Altimmune has made substantial progress. The company's lead pipeline candidate, pemvidutide, has advanced from a preclinical molecule to a phase 3 ready program in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), with ongoing phase 2 clinical programs in alcohol use disorder (AUD) and alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD).
Pemvidutide, a balanced 1:1 dual glucagon and GLP-1 receptor agonist, has shown meaningful reductions in liver inflammation and fibrosis, along with significant weight loss and impressive tolerability in patients with MASH. Altimmune has a scheduled end-of-phase 2 meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to align on proposed trial design and study endpoints for a phase 3 MASH program. Furthermore, the company expects to report 48-week data from the IMPACT phase 2b trial before year-end, including updated non-invasive test (NIT) and weight loss data, along with safety and other related data.
Jerry Durso, who has more than 30 years of leadership experience in the life sciences industry, is enthusiastic about leading Altimmune into its next phase of growth. His appointment comes on the heels of his successful tenure as the Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Intercept Pharmaceuticals, a company focused on liver diseases, where he led the company through a successful acquisition by Alfasigma.
Altimmune's future looks promising, with the potential to improve the lives of those with liver disease. The company is poised to transition to a late-stage clinical company looking towards commercialization under Durso's leadership.
Altimmune is a late clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel peptide-based therapeutics for liver and metabolic diseases, with pemvidutide as its lead product candidate for the treatment of MASH, AUD, and ALD. Today the company's shares have moved 1.74% to a price of $5.26. For more information, read the company's full 8-K submission here.
