Catalyst Biosciences Announces Key Leadership Changes in its Ongoing Transition to an Integrated Protease Medicines Company
July 14 2021 - 08:00AM
Catalyst Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBIO) today announced it has
promoted Grant Blouse, Ph.D., to chief scientific officer and Tom
Knudsen, DVM, Ph.D., to senior vice president, corporate
development. Howard Levy, M.B.B.Ch, Ph.D., M.M.M., chief medical
officer, announced his plan to retire and transition to a senior
clinical advisor role to Catalyst.
“First and foremost, on behalf of all our employees and the
Board of Directors at Catalyst Biosciences, I want to thank Howard
for his many years of dedicated service, and especially for his key
insights into initiating and advancing our SQ hemophilia programs
and congratulate him on his well-deserved retirement. Due to his
vision, SQ MarzAA is currently in a Phase 3 registrational study
and SQ DalcA has successfully completed a Phase 2 trial. We look
forward to Howard’s continuing expert advice as he transitions to
the role of senior clinical advisor,” said Nassim Usman, Ph.D.,
president and chief executive officer of Catalyst.
“I’d like to thank Nassim and the entire Catalyst family for
their collaboration and support over my years of service. I look
forward to Catalyst continuing to advance MarzAA and DalcA so that
patients can have an improved quality of life,” said Dr. Levy.
Dr. Usman continued, “I am pleased to announce Grant’s promotion
to chief scientific officer. During his tenure at Catalyst, he has
been instrumental in building our protease engineering platform and
our hemophilia and complement programs.”
“Additionally, it is my pleasure to announce Tom’s promotion to
senior vice president, corporate development,” Dr. Usman concluded,
“Tom’s knowledge and experience in science, finance and corporate
strategy will support our corporate development efforts as the
company grows its protease medicines business.”
Dr. Grant Blouse has served as served as senior vice president,
translational research at Catalyst since January 2020 and as vice
president, translational research since July 2018. Prior to
Catalyst, Dr. Blouse was principal scientist and project manager at
Novo Nordisk A/S, haemophilia enzymology, where he led early and
late-stage hemophilia projects and drove the strategic evaluation
of new therapeutic areas in the rare disease space. Prior to Novo
Nordisk, Dr. Blouse was a senior scientist at Catalyst, working on
building Catalyst’s hemophilia programs, including the design of
MarzAA and DalcA. Dr. Blouse has held research and investigator
positions at Aarhus University’s Department of Molecular Biology,
Henry Ford Health System’s Division of Biochemical Research and
Wayne State University School of Medicine’s Department of
Pharmacology. Dr. Blouse has published widely and is an inventor on
many patents in protease biochemistry and hematology. Dr. Blouse
earned his B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Delaware,
his M.Sc. in Biochemistry from Clemson University, and his Ph.D. in
Pharmacology from Wayne State University School of Medicine.
Dr. Tom Knudsen has served as vice president, corporate
development at Catalyst since January 2021. Prior to that, he was
vice president, translational research at Catalyst. Before joining
Catalyst, Dr. Knudsen has led strategy consulting at Deloitte and
biopharmaceuticals research at Novo Nordisk. During his time at
Novo Nordisk, he held various line, portfolio, and project
management leadership roles. Dr. Knudsen earned his DVM and Ph.D.
degrees in Veterinary Medicine at the University of Copenhagen in
collaboration with the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill.
About Catalyst Biosciences, the Protease Medicines
companyCatalyst is a research and clinical development
biopharmaceutical company focused on addressing unmet medical needs
in rare disorders of the complement and coagulation systems. Our
protease engineering platform has generated two late-stage clinical
programs, including MarzAA, a subcutaneously (SQ) administered
next-generation engineered coagulation Factor VIIa (FVIIa) for the
treatment of episodic bleeding in subjects with rare bleeding
disorders. Our complement pipeline includes a preclinical
C3-degrader program licensed to Biogen for dry age-related macular
degeneration, an improved complement factor I protease for SQ
replacement therapy in patients with CFI deficiency and
C4b-degraders designed to target disorders of the classical
complement pathway as well as other complement programs in
development.
Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release
contains forward-looking statements that involve substantial risks
and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include statements
about the potential uses and benefits of the Company’s product
candidates, and the Company’s collaboration with Biogen for dry
age-related macular degeneration. Actual results or events could
differ materially from the plans, intentions, expectations, and
projections disclosed in the forward-looking statements. Various
important factors could cause actual results or events to differ
materially, including, but not limited to, the risk that trials and
studies may be delayed as a result of COVID-19, competitive
products and other factors, that trials may not have satisfactory
outcomes, that additional human trials will not replicate the
results from earlier trials, the risk that costs required to
develop or manufacture the Company's products will be higher than
anticipated, including as a result of delays in trial enrollment,
development and manufacturing resulting from COVID-19 and other
factors, the risk that Biogen will terminate Catalyst's agreement,
the risk that potential adverse effects may arise from the testing
or use of MarzAA, including the generation of neutralizing
antibodies, competition and other risks described in the "Risk
Factors" section of the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q
filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission on May 6, 2021, and in other filings with
the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company does not
assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements,
except as required by law.
Contact:
Ana KaporCatalyst Biosciences,
Inc.investors@catbio.com
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