Editas Medicine Announces Appointment of Erick J. Lucera as Chief Financial Officer
May 16 2023 - 4:30PM
Editas Medicine, Inc. (Nasdaq: EDIT), a clinical-stage genome
editing company, today announced the appointment of Erick J. Lucera
as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, effective
May 17, 2023. Mr. Lucera will succeed Michelle Robertson, who has
served in the role since January 2020 and is stepping down to
pursue external opportunities. Ms. Robertson will remain with the
Company in an advisory role through August 16, 2023, to ensure a
smooth transition.
“We are thrilled to welcome Erick to the executive leadership
team as our new CFO. Erick brings to Editas a proven track record
of driving financial decision-making, as well as identifying and
successfully closing strategic partnerships in the biotechnology
field,” said Gilmore O’Neill, M.B., M.M.Sc., President and Chief
Executive Officer. “We are confident that Erick joining our team
will best position Editas for success as we pursue our goal of
delivering life-changing medicines to patients with previously
untreatable or under-treated diseases.”
Dr. O’Neill continued, “On behalf of the entire Company, I also
would like to thank Michelle for her significant contributions and
dedication to Editas Medicine during the past three and a half
years, including positioning Editas financially to ensure our
ability to meet our goals and deliver life-changing medicines to
patients.”
“I am honored and excited for the opportunity to join Editas
Medicine at this pivotal time as their lead asset is generating
exciting human data and the Company is beginning to prepare its
regulatory and commercialization strategy. Furthermore, I believe
the Company has a valuable, yet underappreciated, patent portfolio.
I am confident I can leverage my prior experience to help focus the
Company towards the exciting vision that Gilmore has laid out to
bring innovative medicines to patients and drive shareholder
returns. I am looking forward to working with Gilmore, the board of
directors, and the entire team at Editas Medicine, in addition to
its other stakeholders,” said Erick J. Lucera, Chief Financial
Officer, Editas Medicine.
Ms. Robertson added, “Being a part of Editas Medicine’s journey
and helping lead to this point in the Company’s growth has been an
honor. I look forward to seeing Editas’ continued success towards
developing transformative medicines for people living with serious
diseases around the world.”
Mr. Lucera brings to Editas more than thirty years of financial,
operational, and investment experience in life sciences. He most
recently served as Chief Financial Officer of AVEO Pharmaceuticals,
where he helped scale the company from a clinical-stage entity,
through FDA approval and commercial launch, to its acquisition by
LG Chem. Prior to AVEO, Mr. Lucera served as Chief Financial
Officer of commercial-stage, medical technology company Valeritas,
helping develop the company’s international distribution strategy
and additional indications for its insulin pump. He also has
extensive business development experience from when he served as
Vice President, Corporate Development at Aratana Therapeutics,
where he helped significantly expand the company’s product pipeline
through a series of license deals and corporate acquisitions.
Prior to his experience in industry, Mr. Lucera spent more than
fifteen years in investment management as a healthcare analyst at
Eaton Vance, portfolio manager of the Triathlon Life Sciences Fund
at Intrepid Capital, and as head of the healthcare research team at
Independence Investments. Mr. Lucera has board of directors’
experience with public companies and within the non-profit
community. He holds a CPH from Harvard University, an MS from
Boston College, an MBA from Indiana University, and a BS from the
University of Delaware.
About Editas MedicineAs a
clinical-stage genome editing company, Editas Medicine is focused
on translating the power and potential of the CRISPR/Cas9 and
CRISPR/Cas12a genome editing systems into a robust pipeline of
treatments for people living with serious diseases around the
world. Editas Medicine aims to discover, develop, manufacture, and
commercialize transformative, durable, precision genomic medicines
for a broad class of diseases. Editas Medicine is the exclusive
licensee of Broad Institute and Harvard University’s Cas9 patent
estates and Broad Institute’s Cas12a patent estate for human
medicines. For the latest information and scientific presentations,
please visit www.editasmedicine.com.
Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release
contains forward-looking statements and information within the
meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
The words "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate,"
"expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "potential," "predict,"
"project," "target," "should," "would," and similar expressions are
intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all
forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. The
Company may not actually achieve the plans, intentions, or
expectations disclosed in these forward-looking statements, and you
should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking
statements. Actual results or events could differ materially from
the plans, intentions and expectations disclosed in these
forward-looking statements as a result of various important
factors, including: uncertainties inherent in the initiation and
completion of preclinical studies and clinical trials and clinical
development of the Company’s product candidates; availability and
timing of results from preclinical studies and clinical trials;
whether interim results from a clinical trial will be predictive of
the final results of the trial or the results of future trials;
expectations for regulatory approvals to conduct trials or to
market products and availability of funding sufficient for the
Company’s foreseeable and unforeseeable operating expenses and
capital expenditure requirements. These and other risks are
described in greater detail under the caption “Risk Factors”
included in the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K,
which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
and in other filings that the Company may make with
the Securities and Exchange Commission in the future. Any
forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak
only as of the date hereof, and the Company expressly disclaims any
obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether
because of new information, future events or otherwise.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d0b1e143-8200-4086-8b6d-09cd33014660
Media and Investor Contact:
Cristi Barnett
(617) 401-0113
cristi.barnett@editasmed.com
Editas Medicine (NASDAQ:EDIT)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Editas Medicine (NASDAQ:EDIT)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024