Mersana Therapeutics Announces Appointment of Tushar Misra, Ph.D., as Chief Manufacturing Officer
August 16 2021 - 08:00AM
Mersana Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: MRSN), a clinical-stage
biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing a
pipeline of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) targeting cancers in
areas of high unmet medical need, today announced the appointment
of Tushar Misra, Ph.D., as Chief Manufacturing Officer, effective
Monday, August 16, 2021. Dr. Misra replaces Michael Kaufman, Ph.D.,
who is retiring from Mersana after more than five years with the
Company. Dr. Kaufman will remain at Mersana to ensure a smooth
transition until September 10, 2021.
“Tushar is a seasoned biopharmaceutical executive with a track
record in the scale up of manufacturing processes for small
molecules, large-molecules and ADCs as well as the development and
management of worldwide commercial supply chains. Through his
career, Tushar has been involved in the development of 15 clinical
stage molecules and the launch of 5 products. We are very excited
to have him join the Mersana team, especially as we continue to
advance the clinical development of UpRi for ovarian cancer in both
the UPLIFT single-arm registrational strategy and the UPGRADE
umbrella combination study and rapidly progress our pipeline of
innovative ADC candidates,” said Anna Protopapas, President and CEO
of Mersana. “I would like to thank Michael for his commitment to
Mersana’s mission over the past five years. His contributions have
been invaluable in advancing our innovative ADC candidate pipeline
and building a highly experienced and productive team. I look
forward to working with Michael to ensure a seamless transition of
leadership and, on behalf of the entire Mersana team, I wish him
all the best in his retirement.”
Tushar Misra, Ph.D., was most recently EVP, Head of Technical
Development & Manufacturing at Laronde, a platform company
developing a novel, engineered form of RNA. While at Laronde, he
led the process development and support team for end-to-end
manufacturing for preclinical and clinical research. Before that,
he was SVP, Technical Operations at Wave Life Sciences. Prior to
Wave Life Sciences, Dr. Misra worked at Takeda Pharmaceuticals in
several positions of increasing seniority, most recently as VP
& Head, Global Oncology and Biologics Operations. While at
Takeda, he built world-wide manufacturing and supply chain
infrastructure for the company’s biologic and oncology commercial
products including ADCETRIS® (brentuximab vedotin) and ENTYVIO®
(vedolizumab). Earlier in his career, he held senior executive
leadership roles in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences at
Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (previously Sepracor,
Inc.). Dr. Misra received his Ph.D. and M.S. in chemical
engineering from the University of Rhode Island and his B.Sc. with
honors from the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela,
India.
“I am thrilled to join Mersana and am eager to work with
Mersana’s experienced manufacturing team as we seek to advance UpRi
toward commercialization and build out our maturing pipeline of
innovative ADC candidates with the potential to address unmet
medical needs across multiple different tumor types,” said Dr.
Misra.
Dr. Kaufman commented, “It has been an honor to
work with Anna and the entire Mersana team as we collectively
advance our mission of discovering and developing life-changing
ADCs for patients fighting cancer. I am confident that Tushar is
well suited for this position and is supported by our seasoned and
capable manufacturing team.”
About Mersana
TherapeuticsMersana Therapeutics is a clinical-stage
biopharmaceutical company using its differentiated and proprietary
ADC platforms to rapidly develop novel ADCs with optimal efficacy,
safety and tolerability to meaningfully improve the lives of people
fighting cancer. Mersana’s lead product candidate, upifitamab
rilsodotin (UpRi), is a Dolaflexin ADC targeting NaPi2b and is
being studied in UPLIFT, a single-arm registration strategy in
patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, as well as in
UPGRADE, a Phase 1 umbrella study in combination with other ovarian
cancer therapies. UpRi is also being studied in the expansion
portion of a Phase 1 proof-of-concept clinical study. XMT-1592,
Mersana’s second ADC product candidate targeting NaPi2b-expressing
tumors, was created using Mersana’s customizable and homogeneous
Dolasynthen platform and is in the dose escalation portion of a
Phase 1 proof-of-concept clinical study. The Company’s early-stage
programs include XMT-1660, a Dolasynthen ADC targeting B7-H4, as
well as XMT-2056, a STING-agonist ADC developed using the Company’s
Immunosynthen platform. In addition, multiple partners are using
Mersana’s Dolaflexin platform to advance their ADC pipelines. The
Company routinely posts information that may be useful to investors
on the “Investors and Media” section of our website at
www.mersana.com.
Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release
contains “forward-looking” statements within the meaning of federal
securities laws. These forward-looking statements are not
statements of historical facts and are based on management’s
beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to
management. Forward-looking statements include information
concerning the Company’s business strategy and the design,
progression and timing of its clinical trials, the ability of the
single-arm UPLIFT cohort to enable registration, and expectations
regarding future clinical trial results based on data achieved to
date, and the sufficiency of the Company’s cash on hand.
Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by terms
such as “aims,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “contemplates,”
“continues,” “could,” “estimates,” “expects,” “goal,” “intends,”
“may,” “on track,” “opportunity,” “plans,” “poised for,”
“possible,” “potential,” “predicts,” “projects,” “promises to be,”
“seeks,” “should,” “target,” “will,” “would” or similar expressions
and the negatives of those terms. Forward-looking statements
represent management’s beliefs and assumptions only as of the date
of this press release. The Company’s operations involve risks and
uncertainties, many of which are outside its control, and any one
of which, or combination of which, could materially affect its
results of operations and whether the forward-looking statements
ultimately prove to be correct. Factors that may materially affect
the Company’s results of operations and whether these
forward-looking statements prove to be correct include, among other
things, that preclinical testing or early clinical results may not
be predictive of the results or success of ongoing or later
preclinical or clinical studies, that the identification,
development and testing of the Company’s product candidates and new
platforms will take longer and/or cost more than planned, and that
our clinical studies may not be initiated or completed on schedule,
if at all, as well as those listed in the Company’s Quarterly
Report on Form 10-Q filed on August 6, 2021, with the Securities
and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), and subsequent SEC filings. In
addition, while we expect that the COVID-19 pandemic might
adversely affect the Company’s preclinical and clinical development
efforts, business operations and financial results, the extent of
the impact on the Company’s operations and the value of and market
for the Company’s common stock will depend on future developments
that are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence
at this time, such as the ultimate duration of the pandemic, travel
restrictions, quarantines, physical distancing and business closure
requirements in the U.S. and in other countries, and the
effectiveness of actions taken globally to contain and treat the
disease. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no
obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or
to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from
those anticipated in the forward-looking statements, even if new
information becomes available in the future.
Contact:
Investor & Media ContactSarah Carmody,
617-844-8577scarmody@mersana.com
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