Sigilon Therapeutics Appoints Ajay Rai, M.B.A., as Senior Vice President, Head of Business Development
July 19 2021 - 7:00AM
Sigilon Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGTX), a biotechnology company
that seeks to develop functional cures for chronic diseases through
its Shielded Living Therapeutics™ platform, today announced the
appointment of Ajay Rai, M.B.A., as Senior Vice President, Head of
Business Development. Most recently, Mr. Rai served as Vice
President, Corporate Development, Strategy & Alliance
Management at Frequency Therapeutics where he was responsible for
evolving the company’s overall business and corporate strategy and
played an integral role in executing several financing rounds,
including an Initial Public Offering.
“We are pleased to welcome Ajay to our team, as he brings over
two decades of business development, finance and partnering
experience in the life sciences,” said Rogerio Vivaldi, M.D.,
President and CEO of Sigilon. “At Sigilon, we are committed to
discovering the full potential of our modular platform technology
in hopes of reaching broader patient populations worldwide. Ajay
has a strong track record of successfully expanding and
accelerating access to novel therapeutics through targeted
collaborations and strategic partnerships. We believe Ajay will
play an important role in identifying and evaluating opportunities
where Sigilon’s technology and growing pipeline could potentially
disrupt existing treatment paradigms for patients with chronic
disease.”
Prior to Frequency Therapeutics, Mr. Rai was Senior Director of
Corporate Development for Takeda, where he was responsible for
evaluating and leading mergers and acquisitions (M&A),
divestments, joint ventures and new company formation. Previously,
he spent more than a decade at Biogen, holding various roles of
increasing responsibility including business planning, investor
relations, corporate strategy, venture investment and business
development/M&A. While there, he was responsible for leading
business development activities for several therapeutic areas
including immunology, pain and tissue injury, and fibrosis. Mr. Rai
completed more than 15 transactions ranging from acquisitions to
early-stage research partnerships and was instrumental in leading
new and follow-on investments in multiple early-stage companies for
Biogen’s Venture Portfolio. Earlier in his career, he was an
M&A advisor for Ernst & Young’s M&A advisory practice,
as well as was part of the Finance and Strategy Group of Roche
Molecular Systems. Mr. Rai has been an advisor to multiple start-up
life sciences companies, including Innovate Biopharma, Immunomic
Therapeutics and Cayuga Therapeutics. He earned a B.S. in Finance
from New York University’s Stern School of Business and a M.B.A.
from Case Western University.
Added Mr. Rai: “I am excited to be joining Sigilon, as I truly
believe its platform technology has the ability to revolutionize
the way patients living with chronic diseases are treated. I look
forward to working with the talented Sigilon team in forging
strategic partnerships with the goal of advancing the Company’s
pipeline and expanding access to its platform technology.”
About Sigilon TherapeuticsSigilon Therapeutics
seeks to develop functional cures for chronic diseases through its
Shielded Living Therapeutics™ platform. Sigilon’s product
candidates are non-viral engineered cell-based therapies designed
to produce the crucial proteins, enzymes or factors needed by
patients living with chronic diseases such as hemophilia, lysosomal
diseases and diabetes. The engineered cells are protected by
Sigilon’s Afibromer™ biomaterials matrix, which shields them from
immune rejection and fibrosis. Sigilon was founded by Flagship
Pioneering in conjunction with Daniel Anderson, Ph.D., and Robert
Langer, Sc.D., of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release
includes forward-looking statements. These forward-looking
statements generally can be identified by the use of words such as
“anticipate,” “expect,” “plan,” “could,” “may,” “will,” “believe,”
“estimate,” “forecast,” “goal,” “project,” and other words of
similar meaning. These forward-looking statements address various
matters, including the modularity of our platform technology, the
potential benefits of our pipeline and product candidates and our
ability to expand or accelerate access through collaborations and
partnerships. Each forward-looking statement contained in this
press release is subject to risks and uncertainties that could
cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or
implied by such statement. Applicable risks and uncertainties
include, among others, that we have incurred significant losses
since inception and our need for additional funding; the SLTx
platform consists of novel technologies that are not yet clinically
validated for human therapeutic use; that we have only any results
from the testing of any of our product candidates in clinical
trials and any favorable preclinical results are not predictive of
results that may be observed in clinical trials; we may be unable
to obtain and maintain patent protection and other intellectual
property rights for SIG-001 or any other product candidates and for
our SLTx platform, or the scope of the patent and other
intellectual property protection obtained may not be sufficiently
broad; and the risks identified under the heading “Risk Factors” in
our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31,
2021 and in any subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. We caution investors not to place considerable reliance
on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release.
You are encouraged to read our filings with the SEC, available at
www.sec.gov, for a discussion of these and other risks and
uncertainties. The forward-looking statements in this press release
speak only as of the date of this document, and we undertake no
obligation to update or revise any of these statements. Our
business is subject to substantial risks and uncertainties,
including those referenced above. Investors, potential investors,
and others should give careful consideration to these risks and
uncertainties.
Investor ContactsRob WindsorSigilon
Therapeutics, Head of Investor
Relationsrobert.windsor@sigilon.com 617-586-3837
Media ContactAmy BonannoSolebury
Troutabonanno@soleburytrout.com 914-450-0349
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