Former FDA Director, Boston Scientific Leaders Join Keyron’s Board

Keyron has welcomed three new board members: a former U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) director and two senior managers with past experience at Boston Scientific Corp.

Thee appointments aim to strengthen Keyron’s regulatory, clinical, and strategic leadership as the company prepares for its upcoming clinical trials, associated global regulatory submissions, and future strategic alliances centered around its ForePass device. The product is designed to replicate the outcomes of metabolic surgery—without cutting, puncturing, or trauma—through a fully reversible, minimally invasive procedure.

The new board members are David Feigal, M.D.; Joyce Peetermans, Ph.D.; and Christopher Rowland.

Dr. Feigal (head of Regulatory Affairs) is a former director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH). He brings decades of experience guiding breakthrough technologies through FDA approval and is now the company’s lead for FDA engagement and IDE submission. Founder of leading U.S. regulatory consultancy, NDA Partners, Dr. Feigal is considered as one of the most experienced regulatory experts in the United States; he has held senior global roles at public companies Amgen and Elan, and led or advised more than 20 successful medical product approvals across therapeutic areas.

Dr. Peetermans (acting chief technology officer) has more than 35 years of leadership roles in R&D, clinical research, and innovation in gastroenterological and surgical endoscopy, and other specialties. She spent 25 years at Boston Scientific, where she was on the Endoscopy Management Board as vice president of Global Clinical Programs, and vice president of Innovation and Research during the $615 million acquisition of Apollo Endosurgery and several other key deals by Boston Scientific Endoscopy.

Rowland is a seasoned executive with more than 35 years leading Class III endoscopic and metabolic device companies. He served as president at Given Imaging before its $860 million PillCam exit to Covidien (now Medtronic) and was CEO of Neotract before its $1.1 billion acquisition by Teleflex. He also spent 17 years in senior roles at Boston Scientific. Rowland is chairing Keyron’s Board of Directors and supporting its corporate development and fundraising strategy.

“Christopher, David, and Joyce are absolute world-class leaders. Their decision to join Keyron reflects the urgency of the metabolic crisis—especially the unmet need in diabetes and higher BMI—and the unique power of what we’ve built,” Keyron Founder/CEO Giorgio Castagneto Gissey said. “Their expertise will be transformative as we enter human trials and deliver the first truly effective, scalable alternative to surgery for millions.”

This leadership expansion follows several successful large-animal studies of ForePass demonstrating excellent safety, tolerability, and strong efficacy on both weight and insulin production. Key results were published in Gut (Angelini G, Galvao Neto M, Boskoski I, et al., 2024), showing ForePass’s ability to replicate surgery-like results without incisions. The company is now preparing to unveil best-in-class preclinical data showing clear superiority over Semaglutide—the $28 billion annual standard of care for obesity and diabetes in Ozempic and Wegovy—across all major endpoints. These data are expected to be published soon.

Ninety-two percent of Semaglutide patients fail to achieve 15% total body weight loss (New England Journal of Medicine, 2021; 385(6):503–515), with 85% discontinuing GLP-1 therapy within just 24 months (Reuters, 10 July 2024). Yet patients with severe obesity (BMI ≥35)—especially those who also have type 2 diabetes—need around 30% weight loss. Since GLP-1s fall substantially short and most stop taking them, surgery remains the only viable option, regularly delivering over 30% weight loss despite its risks and complications.

ForePass is a fully removable, endoscopically implantable device aiming to replicate the metabolic benefits of surgery without incisions. It targets patients with BMI ≥35 and diabetes or BMI ≥40—a large, high-risk population underserved by current treatments.

A VC-backed startup, Keyron is a biometabolic device platform company pioneering a new class of implantable therapies that aim to replicate the effects of bariatric and metabolic surgery without incisions—and restore metabolic health at its root without driving insulin overproduction or dependency. The firm is headquartered in London and Boston.