Date: 2013-07-02
Type of information: Nomination
Compound:
Company: Warp Drive Bio (USA - MA)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology - Infectious diseases
Type agreement: nomination
Action mechanism:
Disease:
Details: * On July 2, 2013, Warp Drive Bio, a life sciences company using proprietary genomic technology to transform the discovery and development of natural product drugs, announced the appointment of world-leading scientist and company co-founder Gregory
Verdine, Ph.D., to chief executive officer. Dr. Verdine succeeds founding CEO Alexis Borisy, who will remain on Warp Drive Bio’s board of directors and will assume the position of executive chairman. In addition, Warp Drive Bio has appointed industry veteran James Nichols, Ph.D., to the newly created role of chief operating officer, and industry-leading drug hunter Julian Adams, Ph.D., to its board of directors.
Dr. Verdine is a pioneer in the field of chemical biology, having served as the Erving Professor of Chemistry in the Harvard University Departments of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, and Molecular and Cellular Biology for the past 25 years. He discovered the molecular mechanism of epigenetic DNA methylation and elucidated the pathway by which certain genotoxic forms of DNA damage are eradicated from the genome. He is also responsible for having developed a new class of therapeutics termed stapled peptides, which are currently in clinical development and have received much attention for their ability to drug “undruggable” targets. In addition to Warp Drive, Dr. Verdine has co-founded multiple biotechnology companies, including Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Gloucester Pharmaceuticals, Aileron Therapeutics, Tokai Pharmaceuticals, Ontorii Pharmaceuticals and Eleven Biotherapeutics. For more than a decade, Dr. Verdine served as one of two global consultants for Hoffmann-La Roche, and was a founding scientific advisor to Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Ariad Pharmaceuticals and Variagenics, Inc. In 2009, he joined Third Rock Ventures as a venture partner. Dr. Verdine serves as a scientific advisor to the board of directors of the Ibusuki Medipolis Research Institute; on the board of scientific consultants of the Memorial SloanKettering Research Institute; on the board of scientific advisors of the National Cancer Institute; and the scientific advisory board of the SMA Foundation. Dr. Verdine holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Columbia University, a B.S. in chemistry from St. Joseph’s University, and served as an NIH postdoctoral fellow in molecular biology at MIT and Harvard Medical School.
A biopharmaceutical executive and entrepreneur with more than 15 years of life sciences experience, Dr. Nichols joins Warp Drive Bio in the newly created role of chief operating officer. Throughout his career, he has held key leadership roles spanning corporate strategy, portfolio and product strategy, product development, business development, operations and research. Prior to joining Warp Drive Bio, Dr. Nichols was president and chief operating officer of Resolvyx Pharmaceuticals Inc., where he advanced two programs through early clinical development, led the company’s financing and business development activities and closed a strategic partnership on the company’s lead clinical ophthalmic program. Prior to joining Resolvyx, Dr. Nichols was vice president of therapeutics at CombinatoRx, Inc. (now Zalicus), where he led product and portfolio strategy, overseeing seven programs from discovery through Phase 2, and was instrumental in closing multiple strategic deals and financing rounds. Previously, Dr. Nichols was a management consultant at Braun Consulting, a health care-focused consulting firm (acquired by Fair Isaac). Dr. Nichols graduated from Columbia University and holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania. He was subsequently a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral at Stanford University Medical School.
New board member and world-renowned scientist Dr. Adams currently serves as president, research and development at Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he is responsible for the full spectrum of Infinity\'s drug discovery, preclinical and clinical development strategy, and regulatory affairs activities. Prior to joining Infinity in 2003, Dr. Adams was the senior vice president, drug discovery and development at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he had global responsibility for multiple drug discovery programs, including the successful discovery and development of Velcade® (bortezomib), a proteasome inhibitor for cancer therapy. Earlier in his
career, Dr. Adams served in senior positions at LeukoSite and ProScript and as director, medicinal chemistry at Boehringer Ingelheim, where he successfully discovered Viramune® (nevirapine) for HIV. From 1982 to 1987, he was also a medicinal chemist at Merck.
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