Flexion Therapeutics – ZILRETTA® for Osteoarthritis

Returning guest, Dr. Mike Clayman, co-founder and CEO of Flexion Therapeutics discusses their FDA approved drug ZILRETTA® ((triamcinolone acetonide extended-release injectable suspension) for the treatment of osteoarthritis and how the company navigated the pandemic to keep meds in the hands of treating physicians and patients. He talks about how physicians are using ZILRETTA in place of elective surgeries, hence, the major increase in unit purchases from April to June 2020.

Dr. Clayman is a co-founder of Flexion Therapeutics and has served as our President, Chief Executive Officer and as one of our directors since our inception in 2007. Dr. Clayman also serves as the Chairman of the board of directors of both Anokion SA and Ribometrix. Previously, Dr. Clayman had a lengthy career at Eli Lilly and Company, where he was most recently Vice President, Lilly Research Laboratories, and General Manager of Chorus, Lilly’s early-phase development accelerator. During his career at Lilly, Dr. Clayman also led its Global Regulatory Affairs division, the Cardiovascular Discovery Research and Clinical Investigation, Research and Development at Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, a medical device subsidiary of Lilly, the Internal Medicine Division, the Lilly Clinic, Lilly’s dedicated Phase 1 unit, and served as Chair of Lilly’s Bioethics Committee. Prior to his tenure at Lilly, Dr. Clayman was an Assistant Professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where his research centered on the immunopathogenesis of renal disease. Dr. Clayman is the recipient of the Physician Scientist Award from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Clayman earned a B.A., cum laude, from Yale University and an M.D. from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. Following an internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco Moffitt Hospitals, Dr. Clayman completed clinical and research fellowships in Nephrology at the University of Pennsylvania.