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Bringing novel medical dermatology treatments to millions of children and adults

Ted White is President and CEO of Verrica Pharmaceuticals, a late-stage biopharmaceutical company. Headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania, Verrica is committed to the development and commercialization of novel medical dermatology treatments. The company is currently developing its lead product candidate, VP-102, for the treatment of two diseases: 1. molluscum contagiosum, a highly contagious viral skin infection that affects approximately six million people, primarily children, in the United States; and 2. common warts.

EDWIN WARFIELD: Let’s talk about your product candidate in depth. What makes these kinds of treatments novel?

TED WHITE: One of the things that makes our products unique is that it’s sealed in a glass ampoule. Today, if you get cantharidin, it’s got to be through a compounder or you have to import it illegally through Canada. And the only way you can seal that glass ampoule that is in our applicator is by heat, and all of your other formulations of cantharidin contain ether. Ether is a very volatile byproduct, and when you open up a jar of cantharidin, that ether blows off. If you try to seal a glass ampoule up with heat that contained ether, it would blow. Ours is with acetone, which is a huge advantage and often aids to the stability.

Q. Pharmaceutical product development usually takes a long, long time. Can you walk us through some of the product milestones?

A. Verrica’s product portfolio—we’re building a franchise around a molecule, cantharidin. So our first indication, molluscum contagiosum has just completed Phase 3 clinical trials. These were two pivotal trials with 250 patients in each trial—over 500 patients—where we showed clinically statistical significance in these trials compared to placebo with a strong p-value. Right after our molluscum, we’re going to be releasing our topline data from our Phase 2 common wart study, which will be in Q2 of this year. And then we recently publicly announced that we are going to start an external genital warts trials in the second quarter of this year as well.

Finally, the second half of this year we’ll have a couple other milestones. Number one, we’ll file the NDA for our molluscum indication. And then, number two, we’ll file an I&D for plantar warts with VP-103 which is a higher concentration of cantharidin.

Q. What motivates you to keep going during the long and grueling FDA approval process?

A. For me, the fact that we are going to potentially be the first approved FDA product—you’re part of history. There aren’t many new drugs that come out for a brand new indications. There are new drugs that come out that might be better than existing, but this is going to be the first drug approved for this condition. Unless you have children, nobody’s really heard of it. But if you have children and they had it, trust me, you know the challenges that go along with this.

What makes me motivated—what makes me happy—is that we have the potential to be the first FDA approved therapy for the treatment of molluscum and become the standard of care.

Q. You’re very active in healthcare-related philanthropy outside of Verrica. Tell us about your cause.

A. My football coach at Villanova, Andy Talley, taught me, actions speak louder than words and it’s more important what I do off the field than what I do on the field. It’s about giving back. So, I always try to devote part of my time, whether it be coaching CYO, or working at the Bone Marrow Foundation, which is very important to me—he’s instilled some very good values.

I presently sit on the board of the Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation, which is a foundation that raises money for the local chapters of the Bone Marrow Foundation. It’s very rewarding when you get to meet some of these recipients, as well as the donors, and to see what they’re doing. Coach Talley started this program with college football and he’s got now over 100 universities across the US that have participants donating bone marrow each year.

Connect with Ted on LinkedIn.

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ABOUT NEWMARK KNIGHT FRANK

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With roots dating back to 1929, NKF's strong foundation makes it one of the most trusted names in commercial real estate. NKF's full-service platform comprises BGC's real estate services segment, offering commercial real estate tenants, landlords, investors and developers a wide range of services including leasing; capital markets services, including investment sales, debt placement, appraisal, and valuation services; commercial mortgage brokerage services; as well as corporate advisory services, consulting, project and development management, and property and corporate facilities management services. For further information, visit www.ngkf.com.

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Edwin Warfield, CEO of citybizlist, conducts the CEO Interviews.

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