PALO ALTO, Calif., July 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Kodiak
Sciences Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company
specializing in novel therapeutics to treat high prevalence
ophthalmic diseases, today announced the appointments of
Bassil I. Dahiyat, Ph.D.,
Robert A. Profusek, J.D., and
Richard S. Levy, M.D. to its Board
of Directors.
"We are pleased to welcome Bassil, Bob, and Rich to our board of
directors. Bassil's track record as a proven company builder
and scientific expert will be instrumental to Kodiak as we deepen
our pipeline. Bob's experience as a global expert in
corporate governance brings a wealth of business acumen and
wisdom. Rich's track record as a seasoned clinical and
regulatory specialist will provide an important resource as we
advance KSI-301 and our other product candidates," said
Victor Perlroth, M.D., Kodiak's
Chief Executive Officer. "Together, these leaders provide us
with diverse and complementary perspectives, across both science
and business, as we pursue our ambitious goal of becoming a global
leader in ophthalmology medicines development."
Dr. Dahiyat is the co-founder of Xencor (NASDAQ: XNCR), a
biopharmaceutical company, and has been its President and Chief
Executive Officer since the Company's incorporation in August 1997. Dr. Dahiyat is a co-inventor
of Xencor's breakthrough XmAb® antibody engineering technology.
He has led Xencor in raising over $700
million in public and private financing, creating a diverse
portfolio of monoclonal antibody clinical programs for the
treatment of life-threatening and debilitating diseases and
establishing alliances with leading biopharmaceutical companies
that generated over $200 million in
upfront payments. Dr. Dahiyat holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from
Caltech and B.S. and M.S.E. degrees in Biomedical Engineering from
the Johns Hopkins University. He
has co-authored numerous scientific papers in the fields of protein
design and drug delivery, is an inventor of 33 US and numerous
foreign patents and has received scientific awards from the
American Chemical Society, the Controlled Release Society, the
Protein Society and Caltech.
"I'm excited to be joining the board of Kodiak Sciences, a
company with a passion for preventing blindness and improving human
health," said Dr. Dahiyat. "Kodiak's Antibody Biopolymer
Conjugate (ABC™) platform merges the fields of biologics and
chemistry-based therapies, an area of deep interest for me in my
career."
Mr. Profusek is a partner at Jones Day, a global law firm of
over 2,500 attorneys, where he chairs the firm's global M&A
practice. Since joining Jones Day in 1975, Mr. Profusek has
become a widely-recognized expert in mergers, acquisitions, and
corporate governance matters, including shareholder activism and
executive compensation. Mr. Profusek also currently serves as
the lead independent director of both CTS Corporation (NYSE: CTS),
a designer and manufacturer of sensors, actuators and electronic
components, and Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE: VLO), an
international manufacturer and marketer of transportation fuels and
other petrochemical products. Mr. Profusek is a frequent
speaker regarding corporate takeovers and corporate governance, has
authored or co-authored numerous articles, has testified before
Congress and the SEC about takeover and compensation-related
matters and is a frequent guest commentator on CNBC, CNN and
Bloomberg TV. Mr. Profusek holds a J.D. from New York University and a B.A. from Cornell University.
"Kodiak Sciences is bringing a strong scientific foundation and
an exceptional team to the development of novel ophthalmology
medicines designed to prevent and treat blindness for hundreds of
millions of people globally," said Mr. Profusek. "I am very
excited to be contributing to this mission and lending my corporate
expertise to Kodiak during a transformative time for the
business."
Dr. Levy served as Executive Vice President and Chief Drug
Development Officer of Incyte Corporation, a biopharmaceutical
company, from January 2009 to
April 2016 and previously served as
Senior Vice President of Drug Development from August 2003 to January 2009. Prior to
joining Incyte, Dr. Levy served as Vice President, Biologic
Therapies, at Celgene Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company,
from 2002 to 2003. From 1997 to 2002, Dr. Levy served in
various executive positions with DuPont Pharmaceuticals Company,
first as Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Pharmacovigilance,
and thereafter as Vice President, Medical and Commercial Strategy.
Dr. Levy served at Sandoz, a pharmaceutical company and
predecessor of Novartis, from 1991 to 1997 in positions of
increasing responsibility in clinical research and regulatory
affairs. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, Dr.
Levy served as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the UCLA
School of Medicine. Dr. Levy is Board Certified in Internal
Medicine and Gastroenterology. He received his A.B. in Biology from
Brown University, his M.D. from the
University of Pennsylvania School of
Medicine and completed his training in Internal Medicine at the
Hospital of the University of
Pennsylvania and a fellowship in Gastroenterology and
Hepatology at UCLA.
"In my career, I have had the privilege of planning and
executing global clinical and regulatory strategies for innovative
therapeutics," said Dr. Levy. "Kodiak is working at the
cutting edge of science on important new medicines that are
designed to go beyond what is possible with today's
therapies. I look forward to working closely with the Kodiak
team."
About Kodiak Sciences Inc.
Kodiak Sciences is a
clinical stage company developing innovative therapeutics to treat
high prevalence ophthalmic diseases. We aspire to global
leadership in ophthalmology through internal focus and by
aggregating top talent, technologies, discoveries and ideas.
Our Antibody Biopolymer Conjugate, or ABC™, platform merges the
fields of antibody-based and chemistry-based therapies and is at
the core of Kodiak's discovery engine. In addition to its
lead product candidate, KSI-301, a potential best in class molecule
for age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy,
Kodiak has leveraged its ABC platform to build a pipeline of
product candidates in various stages of development including
KSI-501, a dual inhibitor ABC for the treatment of diabetic
retinopathy. Kodiak is based in Palo Alto, CA.
View original content with
multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kodiak-sciences-appoints-bassil-i-dahiyat-phd-robert-a-profusek-jd-and-richard-s-levy-md-to-its-board-of-directors-300682606.html
SOURCE Kodiak Sciences Inc.