Athira Pharma's chief medical officer retires

Bothell-based biotech company Athira Pharma Inc. (Nasdaq: ATHA) announced Monday its chief medical officer has retired.

The company said Hans Moebius was leaving the role after nearly five years. Moebius, who will remain a senior scientific adviser with Athira, has helped guide the company's clinical trials during a trying few years that included a CEO change and a proxy war from an early investor.

"In addition to his five years with Athira, Hans has more than 30 years of industry experience and is an internationally recognized expert in neuropsychiatry, drug research and development, and regulatory strategy," Athira CEO Mark Litton said in a release.

Moebius officially retired Friday, according to the release. He was chief medical officer at Rodin Therapeutics for roughly a year before joining Athira, according to his LinkedIn page. Other stops in his career include Merz Pharmaceuticals, Forum Pharmaceuticals and Novartis.

Athira, founded in 2011 as M3 Biotechnology, is developing treatments for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's dementia. Although results from its phase 2 trials released in 2022 initially appeared disappointing, the trials found that a subset of patients, namely those not on other forms of Alzheimer’s treatment, did see “a potentially beneficial change” to working memory processing speed and cognition compared with the placebo.

Athira is now conducting trials of its lead drug, ATH-1017, on Alzheimer's patients not receiving background therapy. The company completed enrollment in the trial this month with about 315 patients and expects to report data in the second half of this year. Athira is also developing ATH-1017 for Parkinson's. The company went public in 2020.

In 2021, former Athira CEO Leen Kawas was forced to resign after an independent review found she had altered images in her doctoral dissertation and at least four papers she co-authored at Washington State University, where she received a doctorate in molecular pharmacology in 2011. Kawas now leads an investment firm called Propel Bio Partners with early Athira investor Richard Kayne.

Kayne in 2022 launched a proxy war to take control of the board at Athira and oust Litton, but he suspended his campaign in May 2022. He said at the time his tenure on the board "would be very contentious and unproductive, an outcome that I don’t believe would be in the interests of the company or its shareholders."

Athira has also faced class-action lawsuits since Kawas was first placed on leave. Those lawsuits have been consolidated but remain open. According to Athira, the company had cash and investments of about $147.4 million as of the end of 2023.