TIDMPRTC
PureTech Health PLC
16 September 2020
16 September 2020
PureTech Health plc
PureTech Founded Entity Vedanta Biosciences Announces the
Appointment of Jeffrey Silber, MD, as Chief Medical Officer
PureTech Health plc (LSE: PRTC) ("PureTech" or the "Company"), a
clinical-stage biotherapeutics company dedicated to discovering,
developing and commercialising highly differentiated medicines for
devastating diseases, is pleased to note that its Founded Entity,
Vedanta Biosciences, today announced it has appointed Jeffrey
Silber, MD, as chief medical officer. An accomplished leader in
drug development, Dr Silber brings deep experience across multiple
therapeutic areas at Merck, AbbVie and EMD Serono, and will guide
the advancement of the company's clinical programmes. Nancy Chiu
Wilker, PhD, JD, also joins as vice president of legal.
Vedanta Biosciences also secured $15 million from Oxford Finance
to further support its pipeline development, which includes four
clinical-stage product candidates currently being evaluated for the
treatment of high-risk C. difficile infection, inflammatory bowel
disease (IBD), food allergy and advanced and metastatic cancers (in
combination with Bristol Myers Squibb's checkpoint inhibitor,
Opdivo (R)).
The full text of the announcement from Vedanta Biosciences is as
follows:
Vedanta Biosciences Announces the Appointment of Jeffrey Silber,
MD as Chief Medical Officer
Veteran IP attorney Nancy Chiu Wilker, PhD, JD, joins leadership
team as vice president of legal
Company also secured $15 million from Oxford Finance to further
support pipeline development
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., September 16, 2020 - Vedanta Biosciences , a
leading clinical-stage company developing a new category of
therapies for immune-mediated diseases based on rationally-defined
consortia of human microbiome-derived bacteria, today announced the
appointment of Jeffrey Silber, MD, as chief medical officer. An
accomplished leader in drug development, Dr Silber brings deep
experience across multiple therapeutic areas at Merck, AbbVie and
EMD Serono, and will guide the advancement of the company's
clinical programmes. Nancy Chiu Wilker, PhD, JD, also joins as vice
president of legal, where among other responsibilities, she will
oversee and expand the company's foundational portfolio of patents
around live biotherapeutic products.
"We are thrilled to welcome Jeff to Vedanta. Jeff's depth of
experience in the full lifecycle of product development and across
therapeutic areas will be very important to our team as we continue
to advance our pipeline of defined bacterial consortia," said
Bernat Olle, PhD, co-founder and chief executive officer of Vedanta
Biosciences. "We are also delighted to welcome Nancy, whose
extensive experience in building IP portfolios of innovative
biotechs will fill a crucial role."
Dr Silber comes to Vedanta Biosciences from EMD Serono, where he
served as senior vice president of global development. While there,
he was a member of the portfolio-level governance and franchise
leadership committees, and he co-chaired the committee overseeing
the design for all clinical studies. He previously served as vice
president of strategic portfolio development at AbbVie. Dr Silber
started his industry career in clinical development at Merck, where
he assumed multiple strategic roles including leading
anti-infective clinical development programmes, the vaccine
therapeutic area, and the neuroscience pipeline and programme
management team. During his career, Dr Silber has overseen multiple
regulatory submissions and approvals worldwide, and held
departmental head responsibilities spanning clinical research,
project management, programme leadership, pharmacovigilance,
biostatistics, epidemiology and translational medicine. He has been
recognised with numerous academic and professional awards,
including the highest honours awarded by Merck Research
Laboratories and by Merck & Co. Dr Silber earned his BA in
biology from Harvard University and his MD from Albert Einstein
College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. He received additional
academic training in internal medicine at New York
University/Bellevue Hospital and infectious diseases at the
University of Pennsylvania. He began his career as an assistant
professor of medicine at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical
School.
"I see tremendous potential for microbiome-based therapeutics to
address serious unmet needs across multiple therapeutic areas," Dr
Silber said. "Vedanta has led the way in harnessing the power of
the microbiome for drug development and pioneering a new class of
live biotherapeutic products. I'm excited to join the team and to
help guide the advancement of the impressive pipeline."
Dr Wilker previously served as vice president and lead IP
counsel for Fog Pharmaceuticals, where she was responsible for the
company's intellectual property portfolio. She has also held IP
counsel roles at Biogen and Seqirus and was a partner at the legal
firm Sunstein LLP, where she served as IP counsel for numerous
biotech companies. Dr Wilker received her BS in biology and
biochemistry from Colorado State University, her PhD in immunology
from Harvard University and her JD from Suffolk University Law
School.
"Vedanta has built a leading IP position in microbiome
therapeutics based on live bacteria," said Dr Wilker. "I'm looking
forward to joining the team as we continue to protect and expand
our foundational patent portfolio."
Vedanta Biosciences also secured a $15 million loan facility
from Oxford Finance to support its pipeline development, which
includes four clinical-stage product candidates currently being
evaluated for the treatment of high-risk C. difficile infection,
inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), food allergy and advanced and
metastatic cancers (in combination with Bristol Myers Squibb's
checkpoint inhibitor, Opdivo (R)).
About Vedanta Biosciences
Vedanta Biosciences is leading the development of a new category
of oral therapies based on rationally defined consortia of bacteria
derived from the human microbiome. The company's clinical-stage
pipeline includes product candidates being evaluated for the
treatment of high-risk C. difficile infection, inflammatory bowel
diseases, advanced or metastatic cancers, and food allergy. These
investigational therapies are grounded in pioneering research -
published in leading journals including Science , Nature , and Cell
- to identify beneficial bacteria that live symbiotically within
the healthy human gut, fight pathogens and induce a range of potent
immune responses. Vedanta Biosciences controls a foundational
portfolio of more than 40 patents and has built what is believed to
be the world's biggest library of bacteria derived from the human
microbiome. Proprietary capabilities include deep expertise in
consortium design, vast datasets from human interventional studies
and cGMP-compliant manufacturing of oral live biotherapeutics
containing pure, clonally derived bacterial consortia in powdered
form. Vedanta Biosciences was founded by PureTech Health (LSE:
PRTC) and a global team of scientific co-founders who pioneered
Vedanta's modern understanding of the cross-talk between the
microbiome and the immune system.
About PureTech Health
PureTech is a clinical-stage biotherapeutics company dedicated
to discovering, developing and commercialising highly
differentiated medicines for devastating diseases, including
intractable cancers, lymphatic and gastrointestinal diseases,
central nervous system disorders and inflammatory and immunological
diseases, among others. The Company has created a broad and deep
pipeline through the expertise of its experienced research and
development team and its extensive network of scientists,
clinicians and industry leaders. This pipeline, which is being
advanced both internally and through PureTech's Founded Entities,
is comprised of 24 products and product candidates, including two
that have received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance
and European marketing authorisation. All of the underlying
programmes and platforms that resulted in this pipeline of product
candidates were initially identified or discovered and then
advanced by the PureTech team through key validation points based
on the Company's unique insights into the biology of the brain,
immune and gut, or BIG, systems and the interface between those
systems, referred to as the BIG Axis.
For more information, visit www.puretechhealth.com or connect
with us on Twitter @puretechh.
Forward Looking Statement
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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.
Contact:
Investors EU media US media
Allison Mead Talbot Ben Atwell, Rob Winder Stephanie Simon
+1 617 651 3156 +44 (0) 20 3727 1000 +1 617 581 9333
amt@puretechhealth.com ben.atwell@FTIconsulting.com stephanie@tenbridgecommunications.com
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