On January 18, 2017, Albena Patroneva, M.D., chief medical officer of Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. resigned from the company, effective January 31, 2017, for personal and family reasons. Jaakko Lappalainen, M.D., Ph.D., the company's vice president of clinical development, will assume Dr. Patroneva's responsibilities on an interim basis effective January 31, 2017. The company has also retained an executive search firm, effective immediately, to conduct the search for Dr. Patroneva's replacement. Dr. Lappalainen is a U.S. board certified psychiatrist with extensive experience in clinical practice and medical research and has served as the company's vice president of clinical development since December 2015. Prior to that, he served as executive director, Drug Development Services at Premier Research CRO, where he oversaw the safety and medical monitoring of clinical trials and provided consultations on clinical trial design and drug development. Prior to Premier Research, Dr. Lappalainen held various clinical development positions at AstraZeneca.