Leaky gut, tight junctions, and amucosal biologies drive passions at Alba Therapeutics.
The biopharmaceutical company will develop a drug for those who suffer from Celiac?s Disease ?an allergy to gluten-containing grains that attacks the small intestine. So far, the only “cure” is total elimination of gluten from one?s diet.
Dr. Blake Paterson founded the company in 2004 with three staff members. Today there are about 30.
“We are projecting to be about 45 to 60 people by the end of the year,” said Anne Shiflett, senior director of financeone of two women on the management team. “Our goal is to register the drug and market it to the specialty doctors and then to educate and get information out there about Celiac?s.” Shiflett said.
With the drug, Celiac sufferers could eat gluten-based products free of worry.
Shiflett oversees the growing company?s budget. Before Alba, she worked with Ernst & Young in the entrepreneurial services department.
“I was able to work on many different clients, and it whet my appetite for entrepreneurial adventures,” she said. “It is exciting to learn a new company.”
Sharon Rowland, vice president of regulatory affairs, discovered Alba while she served as a professor at the University of Maryland.
“I?d always keep my eye on what little [biotech] company was in Baltimore, I looked up Alba, and called Dr. Paterson,” she said.
Rowland intimately deals with the FDA and its standards for drug development. She spends much of her day monitoring Alba?s quality of manufacturing and clinical and lab practices.
“You need to be able to communicate and work with all types on a relatively calm level,” Rowland said. “As the major contact with FDA, when they call you, you have to understand. I see everything that happens.”
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