Date: 2015-09-29
Type of information: Nomination
Compound:
Company: Audentes Therapeutics (USA - CA)
Therapeutic area: Rare diseases - Genetic diseases
Type agreement: nomination
Action mechanism:
Disease:
Details: * On September 29, 2015, Audentes Therapeutics, a biotechnology company committed to the development and commercialization of gene therapy products for patients with serious, rare diseases, announced the addition of three accomplished biopharmaceutical executives to its leadership team. Natalie Holles has joined Audentes as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Thomas Soloway has joined as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and Kevin Baker, Ph.D. has joined as Senior Vice President, Preclinical Development. In these newly created roles, each will report to Matthew Patterson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Audentes Therapeutics, Inc. Nathalie Holles joins Audentes with over 15 years of corporate development, strategic planning, and commercial experience, gained in a range of therapeutic areas and with a focus on orphan diseases. Most recently, Ms. Holles served as Senior Vice President, Corporate Development at Hyperion Therapeutics, Inc. from 2013 through its acquisition by Horizon Pharma, plc in May 2015. From 2010-2013, Ms. Holles provided executive-level strategy and business development advisory services to a number of privately-held biopharmaceutical companies, most recently acting as Executive Vice President, Corporate Development at Immune Design, Inc. Earlier in her career, Ms. Holles served as Vice President, Business Development at KAI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (acquired by Amgen in 2012) and previously held corporate development and commercial roles at InterMune, Inc. (acquired by Roche in 2014) and Genentech, Inc. Ms. Holles holds an M.A. in molecular, cellular and developmental biology from the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Predoctoral Fellow, and an A.B. in Human Biology from Stanford University. Thomas Soloway joins Audentes with over 20 years of experience in operations, corporate finance, and venture capital related to the life sciences industry. Prior to joining Audentes, Mr. Soloway served as the Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer of Ascendis Pharma A/S, a Danish biopharmaceutical company, where he helped lead a successful initial public offering on NASDAQ. Prior to Ascendis, Mr. Soloway co-founded Transcept Pharmaceuticals, Inc. At Transcept, Mr. Soloway held positions of increasing responsibility, serving initially as Senior Vice President, Operations and Chief Financial Officer and over time as Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer. In this role he oversaw project planning, manufacturing, pharmaceutical sciences, legal, human resources, regulatory and corporate communications. Prior to joining Transcept, Mr. Soloway financed and advised early stage healthcare and life sciences companies as a Principal at Montreux Equity Partners, a venture capital firm. Mr. Soloway earned a B.S. in Entrepreneurial Studies from the University of Southern California and an M.B.A. from Georgetown University. Kevin Baker joins Audentes with over 20 years of experience in the discovery and development of novel biologic drugs for a wide range of diseases. Dr. Baker most recently served as Vice President, Preclinical Development at FivePrime Therapeutics, Inc. In this role, he led a multidisciplinary team that was responsible for advancing three therapeutics into the clinic to treat a variety of indications spanning oncology, immunology and other therapeutic areas. Prior to joining FivePrime in 2006, Dr. Baker served as Associate Director of Protein Therapeutics at Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (HGS), where he led a team responsible for progressing BENLYSTAâ, a novel FDA-approved therapeutic for the treatment of lupus, from research to Phase 2 clinical trials in autoimmune diseases. Prior to joining HGS, Dr. Baker was a scientist at Genentech, Inc., where he conducted research aimed at identifying novel therapeutics for cancer, autoimmune disease and cystic fibrosis. Dr. Baker received a B.Sc. in Biochemistry and Physiology from the University of Salford, England, earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Dundee, Scotland and conducted postdoctoral research in the department of biochemistry at the Biocenter, University of Basel, Switzerland.
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