Vor Appoints Biotech Finance Leader to BOD
16 July 2020
PureTech Health plc
PureTech Founded Entity Vor Biopharma Appoints Daniella Beckman to its Board of Directors
PureTech Health plc (LSE: PRTC) ("PureTech" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage biotherapeutics company dedicated to discovering, developing and commercialising highly differentiated medicines for devastating diseases, is pleased to note that its Founded Entity, Vor Biopharma, today announced it has appointed Daniella Beckman to its Board of Directors. Ms Beckman is an experienced biotech finance leader who currently serves as chief financial officer at Tango Therapeutics. The appointment follows the hiring of Christopher Slapak, MD, as chief medical officer and the recent completion of a $110 million Series B financing round.
The full text of the announcement from Vor is as follows:
Vor Biopharma Appoints Daniella Beckman to its Board of Directors
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., - July 16, 2020 - Vor Biopharma , an oncology company pioneering engineered haematopoietic stem cells (eHSCs) for the treatment of cancer, today announced the appointment of Daniella Beckman to its Board of Directors. The appointment of Ms Beckman, an experienced biotech finance leader who currently serves as Chief Financial Officer at Tango Therapeutics, follows the hiring of Christopher Slapak, MD, as Chief Medical Officer and the completion of a $110 million Series B financing round.
"Daniella is a fantastic addition to our Board of Directors and we are honored to have her join at this important time for our company," said Robert Ang, MBBS, MBA, Vor's President and Chief Executive Officer. "Her expertise in financial strategy and operations will be of great value to us as we leverage our recent Series B funding round to further advance our lead product candidate VOR33 towards clinical trials and continue to build out our portfolio."
Ms Beckman joins Vor with deep financial and operational experience across the biotechnology industry, having worked with both private and publicly traded companies throughout her career. At Tango Therapeutics, Ms Beckman oversees finance, investor relations, and business development. Prior to joining Tango, Ms Beckman was a consultant to early-stage biotechnology companies, leading financial activities and building companies' financial infrastructures. She also served as Interim Chief Financial Officer for Neon Therapeutics. Previously, Ms Beckman was Chief Financial Officer of Idenix Pharmaceuticals, where she was responsible for finance, investor relations, and IT until the company was acquired by Merck in 2014. Earlier in her career, she held various finance positions at Coley Pharmaceuticals, Biogen Idec, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Ms Beckman received her BA in business administration and accounting from Boston University and is a Certified Public Accountant in Massachusetts. In addition to Vor, Ms Beckman also serves on the Board of Directors of Translate Bio as Chair of the Audit and the Nomination and Governance Committees.
"The Series B financing is testament to the potential for eHSCs to improve the treatment paradigm for patients with blood cancers such as acute myeloid leukaemia," Ms Beckman said. "I am looking forward to working with and supporting Vor as the company continues to innovate to address cancer patients in need."
About Vor Biopharma
Vor Biopharma aims to transform the lives of cancer patients by pioneering engineered haematopoietic stem cell (eHSC) therapies. By removing biologically redundant proteins from eHSCs, these cells become inherently invulnerable to complementary targeted therapies while tumour cells are left susceptible, thereby unleashing the potential of targeted therapies to benefit cancer patients in need.
Vor's platform could be used to potentially change the treatment paradigm of both haematopoietic stem cell transplants and targeted therapies, such as antibody drug conjugates, bispecific antibodies and CAR-T cell treatments.
Vor is based in Cambridge, Mass. and has a broad intellectual property base, including in-licenses from Columbia University, where foundational work was conducted by inventor and Vor Scientific Board Chair Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, DPhil.
About VOR33
Vor's lead product candidate, VOR33, consists of engineered haematopoietic stem cells (eHSCs) that lack the protein CD33. Once these cells are transplanted into a cancer patient, we believe that CD33 will become a far more cancer-specific target, potentially avoiding toxicity to the normal blood and bone marrow associated with CD33-targeted therapies. Vor aims to improve the therapeutic window and effectiveness of CD33-targeted therapies, thereby potentially broadening the clinical benefit to patients suffering from acute myeloid leukaemia.
About PureTech Health
PureTech is a clinical-stage biotherapeutics company dedicated to discovering, developing and commercialising highly differentiated medicines for devastating diseases, including intractable cancers, lymphatic and gastrointestinal diseases, central nervous system disorders and inflammatory and immunological diseases, among others. The Company has created a broad and deep pipeline through the expertise of its experienced research and development team and its extensive network of scientists, clinicians and industry leaders. This pipeline, which is being advanced both internally and through PureTech's Founded Entities, is comprised of 24 products and product candidates, including two that have been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). All of the underlying programmes and platforms that resulted in this pipeline of product candidates were initially identified or discovered and then advanced by the PureTech team through key validation points based on the Company's unique insights into the biology of the brain, immune and gut, or BIG, systems and the interface between those systems, referred to as the BIG Axis.
For more information, visit www.puretechhealth.com or connect with us on Twitter @puretechh.
Forward Looking Statement
This press release contains statements that are or may be forward-looking statements, including statements that relate to the company's future prospects, developments, and strategies. The forward looking statements are based on current expectations and are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance and achievements to differ materially from current expectations, including, but not limited to, those risks and uncertainties described in the risk factors included in the regulatory filings for PureTech Health plc. These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions regarding the present and future business strategies of the company and the environment in which it will operate in the future. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as at the date of this press release. Except as required by law and regulatory requirements, neither the company nor any other party intends to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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Contact: Investors |
EU media |
US media |
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Allison Mead Talbot +1 617 651 3156 amt@puretechhealth.com |
Ben Atwell, Rob Winder +44 (0) 20 3727 1000 ben.atwell@FTIconsulting.com |
Stephanie Simon +1 617 581 9333 stephanie@tenbridgecommunications.com
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