Stoke Therapeutics appointed Clare Kahn, Ph.D., to its board of directors on April 7, 2026, adding a veteran regulatory and drug-development executive as the company advances its Phase 3 study of zorevunersen for Dravet syndrome.
Kahn most recently served as R&D strategy officer and chief regulatory and preclinical development officer at X-VAX Technology. Before that, she held senior roles at Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline and currently sits on the board of Solid Biosciences.
The company did not disclose any financial terms tied to the appointment.
The board move comes as Stoke continues to develop zorevunersen, its lead investigational medicine for Dravet syndrome. The therapy is being studied as a potential disease-modifying treatment designed to increase functional Nav1.1 protein production from the unaffected copy of the SCN1A gene.
Stoke said zorevunersen has already received orphan drug designation from both the FDA and EMA, along with FDA rare pediatric disease designation and breakthrough therapy designation for Dravet syndrome with a confirmed SCN1A mutation not associated with gain-of-function.
The company’s collaboration with Biogen gives Stoke exclusive rights to zorevunersen in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, while Biogen holds rest-of-world commercialization rights.
Dravet syndrome affects an estimated up to 38,000 people across the U.S., U.K., the EU-4 and Japan, including about 16,000 in the U.S. The release said up to 57% of patients do not achieve at least a 50% reduction in seizure frequency even with the best available anti-seizure medicines, and up to 20% of children and adolescents with the disease die before adulthood from complications including SUDEP, prolonged seizures, seizure-related accidents or infections. As a result of these announcements, the company's shares have moved -0.27% on the market, and are now trading at a price of $33.70. If you want to know more, read the company's complete 8-K report here.
