Gritstone Announces Management Changes, Including the Appointment of Celia Economides as Chief Financial Officer
June 23 2021 - 8:00AM
Gritstone bio, Inc. (Nasdaq: GRTS), a clinical-stage biotechnology
company developing next generation cancer and infectious disease
immunotherapies, today announced the appointment of Celia
Economides as executive vice president and chief financial officer.
Separately, the company announced that Roman Yelensky, Ph.D.,
executive vice president and chief technology officer, will be
stepping down to co-found and lead a new startup in the cancer
diagnostics space, working alongside a major healthcare investor.
Andrew Allen, M.D., Ph.D., co-founder, president and chief
executive officer of Gritstone, remarked, “Celia brings a diverse
and well-rounded background to the CFO role for Gritstone,
including leadership experience in business and finance strategy,
investor and corporate communications, medical affairs, and
business analytics. Her expertise in these areas will serve our
fast-growing company well as we continue to advance our cancer and
infectious disease platforms. Celia will lead our established
finance and accounting operations, as well as enhance our investor
relations capabilities.”
Dr. Allen continued, “Additionally, I would like to extend my
best wishes and gratitude to Roman, who solved a tough problem –
using nucleic acid sequence data to drive high quality prediction
of peptides that are processed and presented by HLA molecules on
the surface of cancerous or virally infected target cells. This
breakthrough formed the basis of the Gritstone EDGETM platform,
which continues to be leveraged and enhanced by our machine
learning, genomics, proteomics, and immunology teams to drive
target discovery across Gritstone’s programs. I wish him great
success in his new endeavor.”
Ms. Economides was most recently senior vice president, Strategy
and External Affairs at Kezar Life Sciences, Inc., a public company
targeting immune-mediated diseases and cancer. Before joining Kezar
in 2019, she served as vice president, Corporate Affairs at Aurinia
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a public company that delivered the first
FDA-approved oral treatment (an immunotherapy) for lupus nephritis.
Previously, she served as director of Global Medical Affairs and
director of Clinical Operations at BioMarin Pharmaceutical, Inc.
after the company’s acquisition of Prosensa where she led IR and
corporate communications. Earlier in her career, she led investor
relations and program development at the Biotechnology Innovation
Organization (BIO) and worked at a healthcare-focused hedge fund
and in financial services focusing on the biotech sector. Ms.
Economides received a B.A. from McGill University and an M.P.H. in
Health Policy and Management from Columbia University.
Ms. Economides added, “I am thrilled to join Gritstone’s
executive team during this pivotal year for the company as we
expand our pipeline to maximize the benefit we might deliver to
patients. Our two new infectious disease programs are supported by
key strategic partnerships and complement our foundational oncology
programs. With key data from the individualized neoantigen-directed
GRANITE program in cancer expected this fall, and the
“off-the-shelf” SLATE program embarking upon its second phase
imminently, the company is poised for significant near and
long-term growth. The Gritstone platform has enormous potential
utility, and I am excited to help shape the future of the company
and unlock the immense value of antigen-directed
immunotherapy.”
About Gritstone Gritstone bio, Inc. (Nasdaq:
GRTS), a clinical-stage biotechnology company, is developing the
next generation of immunotherapies against multiple cancer types
and infectious diseases. Gritstone develops its products by
leveraging two key pillars—first, a proprietary machine
learning-based platform, Gritstone EDGETM, which is designed to
predict antigens that are presented on the surface of cells, such
as tumor or virally-infected cells, that can be seen by the immune
system; and, second, the ability to develop and manufacture potent
immunotherapies utilizing these antigens to potentially drive the
patient’s immune system to specifically attack and destroy
disease-causing cells. The company’s lead oncology programs include
an individualized neoantigen-based immunotherapy, GRANITE, and an
“off-the-shelf” shared neoantigen-based immunotherapy, SLATE, which
are being evaluated in clinical studies. Within its infectious
disease pipeline, Gritstone is advancing CORAL, a COVID-19 program
to develop a second-generation vaccine, with support from
departments within the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as a license agreement
with La Jolla Institute for Immunology. Additionally, the company
has a global collaboration for the development of a therapeutic HIV
vaccine with Gilead Sciences. For more information, please visit
gritstonebio.com.
Gritstone Forward-Looking
StatementsThis press release contains
forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to,
statements related to the potential of Gritstone’s therapeutic
programs. Such forward-looking statements involve substantial risks
and uncertainties that could cause Gritstone’s research and
clinical development programs, future results, performance or
achievements to differ significantly from those expressed or
implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and
uncertainties include, among others, the uncertainties inherent in
the drug development process, including Gritstone’s programs’ early
stage of development, the process of designing and conducting
preclinical and clinical trials, the regulatory approval processes,
the timing of regulatory filings, the challenges associated with
manufacturing drug products, Gritstone’s ability to successfully
establish, protect and defend its intellectual property and other
matters that could affect the sufficiency of existing cash to fund
operations. Gritstone undertakes no obligation to update or revise
any forward-looking statements. For a further description of the
risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
from those expressed in these forward-looking statements, as well
as risks relating to the business of the company in general, see
Gritstone’s most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed on May
6, 2021 and any current and periodic reports filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission.
ContactsMedia:Dan Budwick1AB(973)
271-6085dan@1abmedia.comInvestors:Alexandra Santos Wheelhouse Life
Science Advisors(510) 871-6161asantos@wheelhouselsa.com
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