François Nader, M.D., Joins Moderna’s Board of Directors
December 10 2019 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
Former CEO of NPS Pharmaceuticals brings broad
expertise to support Moderna’s progress towards late-stage
development and commercialization
Moderna, Inc., (Nasdaq: MRNA) a clinical stage biotechnology
company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines
to create a new generation of transformative medicines for
patients, today announced that François Nader, M.D., M.B.A. has
joined its Board of Directors. Dr. Nader is an experienced
biopharmaceutical executive and director with broad expertise
across development, regulatory affairs and commercial at NPS
Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Shire Plc, now part of Takeda (NYSE:
TAK)), as well as Aventis-Pharma and the Pasteur Vaccines division
of Rhone-Poulenc, now both part of Sanofi (NASDAQ: SNY).
Concurrently with Dr. Nader’s appointment, Peter Barton Hutt,
LL.M. has elected to step down after seven years of service to
Moderna. Mr. Hutt will remain as a consultant and advisor to the
Company.
“We are focused on continuing to add leaders to our board who
understand the complexity of pioneering breakthrough innovations to
support the next phase of Moderna’s growth,” said Noubar Afeyan,
Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chairman of Moderna, and CEO of Flagship
Pioneering. “François is a value builder with deep experience in
vaccine and rare disease therapeutic development and expertise in
leading companies from early to late-stage development. As we
welcome François, I would like to thank Peter Hutt for the
invaluable strategic and regulatory guidance he provided while
serving on the board over the last seven years.”
“I am energized by Moderna’s culture, science and the impact I
believe mRNA medicines will make for patients across a range of
therapeutic areas,” said Dr. Nader. “I look forward to working with
my fellow directors and applying learnings to support Moderna as
the team continues generating new clinical data, prepares for
pivotal trials and scales to ensure it is ready for
commercialization.”
“As Moderna prepares for late-stage development and
commercialization of our CMV vaccine, we sought a director with
diverse experience across clinical development, regulatory affairs
and commercial. François’ success in leading late-stage companies
as well as his deep experience in infectious and rare diseases make
him an important addition to the board as we continue to advance
our pipeline,” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of
Moderna. “François has an impressive track record of leadership and
value creation in the biopharmaceutical sector and I know we will
benefit from his perspective. It has been a pleasure to work
closely with Peter Hutt during his seven years on the board and I
would like to thank him for his contributions to the Company’s
success.”
Dr. Nader served as President, Chief Executive Officer and
Executive Director of NPS Pharmaceuticals from 2008 until 2015,
when the company was acquired by Shire. During his tenure as CEO,
Dr. Nader transformed NPS Pharma into a leading global
biotechnology company focused on delivering innovative therapies to
patients with rare diseases. Prior to NPS, Dr. Nader was a venture
partner at Care Capital, a venture capital firm. He previously
served on Aventis Pharma’s North America Leadership Team, holding a
number of executive positions in integrated healthcare markets and
medical and regulatory affairs. Dr. Nader previously led global
commercial operations at the Pasteur Vaccines division of
Rhone-Poulenc.
In addition to serving on the Moderna board of directors, Dr.
Nader currently serves as Chairman of the board of directors of
Acceleron Pharma (NASDAQ: XLRN), Prevail Therapeutics (NASDAQ:
PRVL) and Talaris Therapeutics. He also serves on the Board of
Directors of Alexion Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ALXN) and advisor for
SVB-Leerink. Dr. Nader is the past Chairman of BioNJ, New Jersey’s
biotechnology trade organization, and previously served on the
board of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), NPS Pharma
(NASDAQ: NPSP), Advanced Accelerator Applications (NASDAQ: AAAP),
Baxalta (NYSE: BXLT), Clementia Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CMTA),
Trevena (NASDAQ: TRVN) and Noven (NASDAQ: NOVN). In 2013, he was
recognized as the Ernst and Young National Life Science
Entrepreneur of the Year.
Dr. Nader earned his French doctorate in medicine from St.
Joseph University in Lebanon and a physician executive MBA from the
University of Tennessee.
About Moderna
Moderna is advancing messenger RNA (mRNA) science to create a
new class of transformative medicines for patients. mRNA medicines
are designed to direct the body’s cells to produce intracellular,
membrane or secreted proteins that have a therapeutic or preventive
benefit with the potential to address a broad spectrum of diseases.
Moderna’s platform builds on continuous advances in basic and
applied mRNA science, delivery technology and manufacturing,
providing the Company the capability to pursue in parallel a robust
pipeline of new development candidates. Moderna is developing
therapeutics and vaccines for infectious diseases, immuno-oncology,
rare diseases and cardiovascular diseases, independently and with
strategic collaborators.
Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., Moderna currently has
strategic alliances for development programs with AstraZeneca, Plc.
(NASDAQ: AZN) and Merck, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRK), as well as the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency (NASDAQ: DARPA), an agency of the
U.S. Department of Defense and the Biomedical Advanced Research and
Development Authority (BARDA), a division of the Office of the
Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) within the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Moderna has
been named a top biopharmaceutical employer by Science for the past
five years. To learn more, visit www.modernatx.com.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191210005248/en/
Moderna Contacts: Media: Colleen Hussey Senior Manager,
Corporate Communications 617-335-1374 Colleen.Hussey@modernatx.com
Investors: Lavina Talukdar Head of Investor Relations 617-209-5834
Lavina.Talukdar@modernatx.com
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