Christopher Burns, a co-founder of Malvern-based Venatorx Pharmaceuticals, is stepping down from his position as the company’s CEO, writes John George for the Philadelphia Business Journal. 

Burns called his time leading the pharmaceutical company a “challenging but rewarding journey” in a LinkedIn post announcing his decision. 

He founded Venatorx fourteen years ago with Dr. Dan Pevear and Dr. Luigi Xerri. They had previously worked together at Protez Pharmaceuticals and decided to form Venatorx “with nothing but a laptop and some ideas,” said Burns. 

Since then, the company invented the experimental antibiotics cefepime-taniborbactam and ceftibuten-ledaborbactam and managed to navigate a phase 3 clinical trial for one of them during the pandemic-related shutdowns. 

However, the company suffered a setback three months ago when its new drug application for cefepime-taniborbactam was rejected by the Food and Drug Administration. The drug is being tested as an experimental treatment for urinary tract infection. 

The FDA asked for additional data about the drug candidate, the testing methods, and the manufacturing process. 

Burns said at the time that while the company was disappointed by the FDA’s decision, it continued to have the “utmost confidence” in its candidate and was working hard on generating the requested data. 

Read more about Christopher Burns stepping down from Venatorx Pharmaceuticals in the Philadelphia Business Journal. 

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