Alvine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a privately held biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing and commercializing therapeutics for autoimmune/gastrointestinal diseases. Alvine's lead product candidate, ALV003, is a combination protease engineered to digest gluten. It is being developed to treat patients with celiac disease. There is no therapy available for treating celiac disease other than complete, life-long avoidance of gluten, a very common food ingredient. Even highly motivated patients who diligently strive to exclude all gluten from their diets may continue to have ongoing damage from celiac disease due to inadvertently ingesting small amounts of gluten. There is a high unmet medical need for celiac disease therapies.     NEWS Alvine Pharmaceuticals Appoints Dr. Daniel C. Adelman, M.D., as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer SAN CARLOS, Calif., March 19, 2009 - Alvine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced the appointment of Dr. Daniel C. Adelman as Senior Vice President, Development and Chief Medical Officer (CMO). “I am extremely pleased to welcome Dan to Alvine’s management team.  His drug development expertise in biopharmaceuticals will be of great value to Alvine as the company advances its lead compound, ALV003 into Phase 2 clinical trials this year,” said Dr. Abhay Joshi, Alvine’s President and Chief Executive Officer.  Read more. Results with ALV003 in Phase 1 Trial of Therapy in Development for Celiac Disease SAN CARLOS, Calif., October 29, 2008 - Alvine Pharmaceuticals, Inc., today announced proof of concept in a Phase 1 Trial of ALV003, an oral protease therapy in development to detoxify gluten, intended for use by patients with celiac disease.  The trial results confirmed that single doses of up to 1,800 mg of ALV003 were safe and tolerable in healthy volunteers.  Doses at the 300 mg level achieved up to a 96% reduction of gluten in a meal in the stomach at 30 minutes, and were well tolerated by patients with celiac disease. Read more. Additional information about Alvine's clinical trials can be found here.