Inhibikase Therapeutics Names Scott Wasserman to Board

Inhibikase Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: IKT) has appointed Scott M. Wasserman, MD, to its Board of Directors, effective October 19, 2026. The addition coincides with the resignation of Dennis Berman from the board, a transition that Inhibikase Chair Amit Munshi described as a recognition of Berman's years of service.

Wasserman currently serves as Chief Medical Officer at Kailera Therapeutics, a clinical-stage company developing GLP-1-based therapeutics for obesity and related conditions. As a cardiologist with more than two decades of experience in clinical development and company leadership, he brings a background that spans both large pharmaceutical organizations and emerging biotechnology firms. His appointment is intended to support Inhibikase as it advances its global Phase 3 IMPROVE-PAH study of IKT-001, a once-daily oral anti-proliferative for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH).

During his tenure at Amgen Inc., Wasserman held the title of Vice President for Global Development and led the therapeutic area covering Bone, Cardiovascular, Metabolic and Neuroscience. He was the company's first cardiologist and built its cardiovascular and metabolic strategy, team, and portfolio. In that role, he led the global development and approvals of Repatha (evolocumab) and was instrumental in the U.S. FDA approval of Evenity (romosozumab). He also oversaw the U.S. approval of Aimovig (erenumab) and managed therapeutic development for conditions including heart failure, anemia, obesity, and Alzheimer's disease.

Prior to his time at Amgen, Wasserman served as CEO and co-founder of Latigo Biotherapeutics, a venture-backed biotechnology company developing non-opioid pain medicines. He also served as a Venture Partner at Frazier Life Sciences, focusing on company creation. His academic background includes faculty positions at Stanford University in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, where he conducted NIH-sponsored research on endothelial gene expression. He also served as a non-interventional cardiologist at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Palo Alto, California.

Munshi stated that Wasserman has taken multiple programs from early development through global approval and has built clinical organizations at both large and emerging companies. The Chair expressed confidence that Wasserman's expertise in global clinical development and regulatory interactions would benefit Inhibikase during a critical phase for the company.

Wasserman described PAH as a progressive, life-threatening disease affecting approximately 50,000 Americans. He noted that the pedigree of imatinib, which was first approved in the United States in 2001 for various cancers and blood disorders, combined with recent preclinical and Phase 1 data for IKT-001, points to a promising role for the asset in this difficult-to-treat condition. IKT-001 is a prodrug of imatinib mesylate targeting aberrant signaling through type III receptor tyrosine kinases implicated in PAH.

The company's single pivotal Phase 3 clinical study, named IMPROVE-PAH (IKT-001 for Measuring Pulmonary Vascular Resistance and Outcome Variables in a Phase 3 Evaluation of PAH), is actively enrolling patients at approximately 180 sites around the world. Inhibikase remains a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on modifying the course of cardiopulmonary diseases.