TIDMPRTC
PureTech Health PLC
16 March 2016
PureTech Health plc
PureTech's Vedanta Biosciences Appoints New Chief Scientific
Officer and Expands to New Facility
PureTech Health plc ("PureTech", LSE: PRTC), a new kind of
pharmaceutical company taking a cross-disciplinary approach to
tackling fundamental healthcare needs, is pleased to note that
Vedanta Biosciences, a PureTech business pioneering the development
of a new class of therapies designed to modulate the human
microbiome, has today announced the appointment of immunology
expert and former Genzyme group vice president, Bruce L. Roberts,
Ph.D., as Chief Scientific Officer. Additionally, Vedanta recently
expanded into new headquarters, research and development and
manufacturing facility in Cambridge, MA.
Daphne Zohar, CEO of PureTech said: "Vedanta has been pioneering
the microbiome field and was the first to rationally design a drug
candidate based on consortia of human commensal bacteria. Vedanta's
platform is built on validated science written up in multiple high
impact publications in Science and Nature and attracted the first
large deal with a pharmaceutical company in the microbiome field.
With the addition of Bruce Roberts as CSO and the move to a new
state-of-the-art facility, Vedanta is poised to continue to lead
this exciting new field."
The full text of the announcement from Vedanta Biosciences is as
follows:
PureTech's Vedanta Biosciences Appoints New Chief Scientific
Officer and Expands to New Facility
Former Genzyme group vice president will head company's R&D
in new Cambridge site
BOSTON, Massachusetts, March 16, 2016 - Vedanta Biosciences,
pioneering the development of a new class of therapies designed to
modulate the human microbiome, today announced the appointment of
former Genzyme group vice president, Bruce L. Roberts, Ph.D., as
Chief Scientific Officer.
Dr. Roberts has 30 years of experience in biotechnology and
pharmaceutical drug discovery and development. He most recently
served as head of Neuro-Immunology and Immune-Mediated Disease
Research at Sanofi Genzyme where he directed pre-clinical efforts
resulting in the introduction of therapeutic antibodies, gene
therapies, cell therapies and small molecules into multiple
clinical trials for the treatment of cancer, multiple sclerosis and
autoimmunity. He directed research efforts in support of several
approved products including lemtrada, aubagio, thymoglobulin,
Mozobil, alemtuzumab, leukine, chlofarabine and fludarabine and
contributed to the generation of ecallantide. He has authored more
than fifty peer-reviewed publications and contributed to several
issued patents and patent applications.
"Bruce brings decades of drug development experience across a
broad range of novel biologic drug modalities and a proven track
record of driving the discovery and development of multiple
approved drugs in immunology," said Bernat Olle, Ph.D., Chief
Executive Officer of Vedanta. "His experience and leadership in
pioneering new drug modalities will be invaluable as we advance our
pipeline of microbiome-modulating therapies."
Vedanta Biosciences was founded by PureTech Health and a team of
world renowned experts in immunology and microbiology. The company
is advancing a pipeline of product candidates designed to treat
autoimmune, inflammatory and infectious diseases, which have been
developed using a proprietary technology platform that enables
mining of the human microbiome for potent pharmaceutical
products.
The Company recently expanded into new headquarters and research
and development facility in Cambridge, MA, including a
state-of-the-art Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facility for the
production of live bacterial drugs.
"Microbiome modulation is among the most exciting and rapidly
evolving fields in science, and it has tremendous potential to
change the way medicine is practiced," said Dr. Roberts. "I am
excited to join one of the leading teams in this field and I look
forward to driving Vedanta's technology platform and pipeline
forward."
About Vedanta
Vedanta Biosciences is pioneering the development of a novel
class of therapies designed to modulate pathways of interaction
between the human microbiome and the host immune system. The
Company was founded by PureTech Health and a group of
world-renowned experts in immunology and microbiology, including
Dr. Ruslan Medzhitov (Professor of Immunobiology at Yale), Dr.
Alexander Rudensky (tri-institutional Professor at the Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Institute, the Rockefeller University and Cornell
University), Dr. Dan Littman (Professor of Molecular Immunology at
New York University), Dr. Brett Finlay (Professor at the University
of British Columbia) and Dr. Kenya Honda (Professor, School of
Medicine, Keio University). Vedanta's Board of Directors includes
Board Chairman, Christopher Viehbacher, Managing Partner at Gurnet
Point Capital and former CEO and Member of the Board of Directors
of Sanofi; Dr. Bennett Shapiro, former Executive Vice President of
Merck; Dr. John LaMattina, former President of Research and
Development at Pfizer and David Steinberg, Co-Founder of Vedanta
and Executive Vice President at PureTech.
In January 2015, Vedanta announced a licensing agreement with
Janssen Biotech, Inc., one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies
of Johnson & Johnson, including an upfront payment and
development and commercialisation milestone payments of up to $339
million. Under the agreement, Janssen is developing one of the
product candidates in Vedanta's pipeline built on the Company's
proprietary technology platform. The company has multiple other
candidates in infectious and inflammatory diseases.
About PureTech Health
PureTech Health (PureTech Health plc, PRTC.L) is a new kind of
pharmaceutical company taking a cross-disciplinary approach to
discovering and developing novel medicines that could improve the
lives of patients. PureTech is focused on important escalators for
life sciences, including the central nervous, gastro-intestinal and
immune systems, and the interactions and signalling between them.
PureTech has a pipeline of more than 30 programmes and has
approximately 20 clinical studies across its pipeline, targeting
multi-billion dollar market opportunities. PureTech's advanced
programmes include five with human proof-of-concept and multiple
with pivotal or registration study readouts in the next two years.
PureTech has over 220 patents and patent applications. PureTech's
leading team and board, along with an advisory network of more than
60 expert founder-scientists and advisors across multiple
disciplines, gives PureTech access to potentially ground-breaking
science and technological innovation. With healthcare undergoing
major transformation, PureTech is well positioned to develop and
launch medicines for the 21st century. For more information, visit
www.puretechhealth.com and connect with us on Twitter.
As of 30 June 2015, PureTech had holdings of 86.9 percent in
Vedanta on a diluted basis. This calculation of PureTech's holding
includes issued and outstanding shares as well as options to
purchase shares and written commitments to issue options, but
excludes unallocated shares authorised to be issued pursuant to
equity incentive plans and any shares issuable upon conversion of
outstanding convertible promissory notes.
Forward Looking Statement
This press release contains statements that are or may be
forward-looking statements, including statements that relate to the
company's future prospects, developments and strategies. The
forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and
are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could
cause actual results, performance and achievements to differ
materially from current expectations, including, but not limited
to, those risks and uncertainties described in the risk factors
included in the regulatory filings for PureTech Health plc. These
forward-looking statements are based on assumptions regarding the
present and future business strategies of the company and the
environment in which it will operate in the future. Each
forward-looking statement speaks only as at the date of this press
release. Except as required by law and regulatory requirements,
neither the company nor any other party intends to update or revise
these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise.
# # #
For further information please contact:
PureTech
Julie DiCarlo, Senior Vice President,
Communications and Investor Relations +1 617 456 0032
FTI Consulting (Communications
adviser to PureTech)
+44 (0)20 3727
Ben Atwell / Matthew Cole 1000
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
NRALLFLDVIIELIR
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 16, 2016 05:00 ET (09:00 GMT)
Puretech Health (LSE:PRTC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2024 to Jul 2024
Puretech Health (LSE:PRTC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jul 2023 to Jul 2024