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Anavex Life Sciences Appoints Former FDA Officer as Senior Vice President for Nonclinical Development

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NEW YORK – May 05, 2021

Anavex Life Sciences Corp. (“Anavex” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: AVXL), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing differentiated therapeutics for the treatment of neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Rett syndrome and other central nervous system (CNS) diseases, today announced the appointment of Dr. Adebayo (Bayo) Laniyonu, as Senior Vice President for Nonclinical Development. Dr. Laniyonu has over 24 years’ experience with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).


“Dr. Laniyonu has an accomplished track record of working within the FDA,” said Christopher U. Missling, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of Anavex. “His depth of experience makes him an excellent choice to provide objective perspective and manage the continuous nonclinical projects at Anavex.”


Prior to joining Anavex, Dr. Laniyonu served as Supervisory Pharmacologist/Toxicologist at the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). He has reviewed hundreds of NDAs, BLAs (including first in class), sNDAs, ANDAs and INDs and provided high impact regulatory and strategic recommendations to the Sponsors of these products. He organized, chaired and presented at FDA workshops and at scientific sessions of professional societies where he presented on FDA current thinking on regulatory issues, he has also presented at FDA Advisory Committee meetings. His review and Supervisory experience span several therapeutics areas including Rare Diseases and Medical Genetics, hematology, Medical Imaging, Radiation Medicine and Medical Counter Measures products. Dr. Laniyonu played pivotal roles in the development of several FDA regulatory guidance documents.


“I am very pleased to be joining Anavex at this important and exciting time for the company,” stated Dr. Laniyonu. “Anavex deep scientific base, innovative and novel approaches to discovery, including use of precision medicine and molecular biology to target a breath of rare diseases, and challenging therapeutic areas such as Rett syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, Parkinson’s disease dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and other CNS diseases is exciting given the unmet medical needs or orphan nature of some of these diseases. I believe there are tremendous opportunities ahead, and I look forward to working with the Anavex team to deliver on the corporate objectives for 2021 and beyond.”


Dr. Laniyonu holds a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Glasgow, UK where he was a Commonwealth Scholar. He was also a Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Post-Doctoral Fellow. Dr. Laniyonu was a recipient of many FDA distinguished awards including Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service, FDA Award of Merit, FDA Outstanding Service Award, FDA Group Recognition Award, CDER Excellence in Communication Award, CDER Excellence in Mentoring Award.

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