Atlantans Discover New Treatment for Newborns 

Across the U.S. and Europe, 60,000 to 70,000 babies are born annually at risk for Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD).

Two local Chabad of Cobb members, Alan Wolk and Dr. Marc Salzberg, run Airway Therapeutics, which is currently conducting phase 2b/3 trials for Zelpultide alfa (ZA) with the intent of it becoming the standard of care for all babies at risk to develop BPD, the most common respiratory disease affecting very early preterm babies born at 22 weeks through less than 28 weeks gestational age, i.e., between 13 and 18 premature.

Wolk related, “Zelpultide alfa is an endogenous protein that these fragile babies are lacking due to their early birth, thus the drug replaces it for the first week until they begin making it on their own. Airway Therapeutics is the only company in the world able to produce human-grade protein to hopefully prevent this. There is no cost for study participants.”

The trial is approved in the U.S., Israel, Germany, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Poland and Argentina, with approval pending in Czech Republic and Portugal. More than 80 hospitals will participate when fully implemented. Currently, there are no Atlanta hospitals participating in the trial, but six Israeli hospitals are involved in Tsfat, Haifa, and Jerusalem, including both Hadassah sites.

Both Salzberg and Wolk are heavily involved with Jewish National Fund-USA (JNF) as major donors every year. Wolk is vice president of the JNF national board of directors and is responsible for Israel Impact Investments by JNF; Salzberg co-chairs the JNF Health Professionals for Israel in Atlanta with his wife, Carole, along with Dr. Alan and Barbara Kaplan. The team is in the process of raising $100 million to enable completion of the BPD pivotal trial, scale up of manufacturing for ZA, several commercial-sized batches required by the regulators to approve commercialization, and execution of perhaps two adult trials.

Salzberg said, “Assuming successful completion of our BPD trial, the targeted patients are these 22- to 28-week gestational age babies. The medical community caring for these babies post-birth are in large hospital NICU’s in the U.S. and Europe to start. We estimate about 250 to 300 hospitals in each continent will represent the bulk of our customer base. The current trial specifically targets BPD prevention in very premature babies, but the future plan is to run additional trials in the next couple of years focused on treatment of serious respiratory diseases in adults.”

Salzberg is the chief executive officer and chairman of the board at Airway Therapeutics. With more than 30 years of experience in academic medicine and the pharmaceutical industry, he has a proven track record in managing drug development and clinical research. His expertise spans the clinical management of anticancer and antiviral drug development, including the market introduction of Saquinavir and Ganciclovir.

Salzberg’s career includes several years at Roche, where he contributed significantly to the development of drugs against cancer and viral diseases. He also co-founded and led the Clinical Cancer Research at the University of Basel. Salzberg has founded and grown two contract research organizations. Both of them have been successfully sold.

Salzberg holds a medical doctorate from the University of Basel, Switzerland. His clinical training includes pediatrics and oncology. He is board certified in pharmaceutical medicine.

Wolk is the chief financial officer and chief operating officer and board member at Airway Therapeutics. He possesses 30 years of extensive experience in global business management and leadership, corporate strategy, financial operations, and organizational leadership. He has had a distinguished career at DuPont, and then Invista, fostering business growth and enhancing operational efficiency.

Wolk has held multiple senior executive roles at both DuPont and Invista. As president, he led global businesses with manufacturing and operations across North America, China, and Europe.

Prior to joining Airway Therapeutics, he taught finance at the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business. Wolk holds a bachelor of business administration in marketing and a master of business administration in finance, both from The Fox School of Business at Temple University.