Veru Announces Steven B. Heymsfield M.D. as the Principal Investigator for its Enobosarm Phase 2b Clinical Trial for High Quality Weight Loss

MIAMI, FL, May 15, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Veru Inc. (NASDAQ: VERU), a late clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative medicines for preserving muscle for high quality weight loss, oncology, and viral induced acute respiratory distress syndrome, today announced Steven B. Heymsfield, M.D., a Professor and the Director of the Body Composition-Metabolism Laboratory at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as the Principal Investigator for the Company’s Phase 2b clinical trial of enobosarm to preserve muscle while augmenting fat loss in patients receiving a GLP-1 RA for weight loss.

Dr. Heymsfield is a leading authority on body composition assessment and his research focuses primarily on human obesity, including energy balance regulation, weight loss treatments, co-morbidity effects, and development of related mathematical models. He has a long term-interest in the development of methods for evaluating body composition and the application of new technologies to the study of human metabolism.

Dr. Heymsfield received a degree in medicine from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and he completed his internship, residency, and fellowship in pharmacology at Emory University. He then joined the Emory University School of Medicine faculty, holding positions there including Associate Professor of Medicine and Assistant Director of the NIH-funded Clinical Research Unit. Expanding on his interests in obesity and metabolism, Dr. Heymsfield next moved to Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons and there he held positions as Professor of Medicine and Deputy Director, New York Obesity Research Center at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital. He and his Columbia colleagues conducted wide ranging clinical studies on obesity with a focus on energy metabolism, body composition, and pharmacologic weight control management. Prior to his Pennington Biomedical position, Dr. Heymsfield worked with Merck & Co. for 5 years, initially as Executive Director in the Obesity Group and then as Global Director of Scientific Affairs.

Dr. Heymsfield has published more than 600 peer-reviewed papers covering topics such as obesity, malnutrition, cachexia, body composition, and caloric expenditure. His contributions to the study of human nutrition led to the TOPS Award from The Obesity Society, the Rhoads Award from the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN), the Robert H. Herman Memorial Award, American Society of Nutrition (ASN), the George Bray Founders Award from The Obesity Society, and he was honored for his role in the FDA ban on ephedra, receiving the 2004 NYC Mayor’s Award for Science and Technology. Dr. Heymsfield was elected Fellow of The Obesity Society in 2014, and he is an honorary member of the American Dietetic and Chilean Clinical Nutrition Associations. Dr. Heymsfield is past president of ASPEN and ASN and he is vice-president of The Obesity Society.