NEEDHAM, Mass., April 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Chiasma, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHMA), a clinical, late stage biopharmaceutical company focused on improving the lives of patients who face challenges associated with their existing treatments for rare and serious chronic diseases, today announced the appointment of Anand Varadan as Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer. Mr. Varadan will lead Chiasma’s commercial strategy and operations.

“We are fortunate to have someone of Anand’s caliber join our leadership team. Anand’s prior tenure with Chiasma and his breadth and depth of relevant experience building commercial organizations and leading successful product launches will be critical to our success,” said Raj Kannan, Chief Executive Officer of Chiasma. “Anand’s strategic orientation and leadership skills will be instrumental to our growth plans as he oversees our commercial strategy to ensure that patients have access to our potential new treatment option, MYCAPSSA for adult patients with acromegaly, if approved.”

Mr. Varadan served as Chiasma’s Chief Commercial Officer until June 2016. He reengaged with the company as a strategic advisor in early 2018 and has been leading MYCAPSSA launch preparations over the last eight months. Previously, Mr. Varadan served as Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer of Karyopharm Therapeutics, Inc., an oncology-focused pharmaceutical company, until July 2019 where he built their commercial organization and led preparations for the successful launch of Xpovio for multiple myeloma. Earlier in his career, Mr. Varadan held several commercial and general management leadership positions at Amgen Inc. in the U.S., E.U. and Canada, including Vice President of the $8 billion U.S. Inflammation and Nephrology Business Unit and Vice President and General Manager of all Amgen operations in Canada. He is also the Founder and President of Ignition Insights LLC, a strategic consulting firm. Mr. Varadan holds a master’s degree in business administration from the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester and a bachelor’s degree in Zoology from The George Washington University.

Mr. Varadan added, “I am honored to rejoin Chiasma as Chief Commercial Officer and look forward to working closely with the leadership team to successfully launch MYCAPSSA, if approved, and build the company by leveraging its exciting technology platform. I have been inspired by the Company’s mission to develop and commercialize alternative options to injectable therapies to provide patients with greater independence. I am pleased to join an exceptional team and help to potentially provide MYCAPSSA, if approved, to the patients that could benefit from it.”

About Chiasma

Chiasma is focused on improving the lives of patients who face challenges associated with their existing treatments for rare and serious chronic diseases. Employing its Transient Permeability Enhancer (TPE®) technology platform, Chiasma seeks to develop oral medications that are currently available only as injections. In July 2019, the company reported positive topline data from its CHIASMA OPTIMAL Phase 3 clinical trial for its octreotide capsules product candidate, conditionally trade named MYCAPSSA, for the maintenance therapy of adult patients with acromegaly in whom prior treatment with somatostatin analogs has been shown to be effective and tolerated. Prior to trial initiation, the company reached agreement with the FDA on the design of the trial through a special protocol assessment. In January 2020, the FDA accepted the company’s NDA resubmission seeking marketing approval of MYCAPSSA in the U.S. The PDUFA target action date is June 26, 2020. Chiasma is headquartered in Needham, MA with a wholly-owned subsidiary in Israel. MYCAPSSA, TPE and CHIASMA are registered trademarks of Chiasma. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.chiasma.com.