BIOMEA Fusion Strengthens its Executive Team with Appointment of Franco Valle as Chief Financial Officer
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., June 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Biomea Fusion, Inc. ("Biomea") (NASDAQ:BMEA), a preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of irreversible small molecules to treat patients with genetically defined cancers, announced the appointment of Franco Valle as Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Valle is an accomplished financial expert who brings extensive experiences to Biomea, in particular with building the necessary infrastructure to support clinical and operational growth within biotech companies. Mr. Valle will also assume the role of Principal Financial Officer and Principal Accounting Officer upon joining.
Recently, Mr. Valle served as Principal Accounting Officer & Senior Vice President of Finance at Eidos (NASDAQ:EIDX), a former publicly traded, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, which merged with BridgeBio (NASDAQ:BBIO) for $2.83 Billion earlier in 2021. Prior to Eidos, Mr. Valle served as the Principal Accounting Officer and Controller at Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:IOVA) from 2016 until 2018. Mr. Valle also worked at Pharmacyclics , which he joined in 2012 and supported through its merger with Abbvie as Senior Accounting Officer of the company. Mr. Valle is a certified public accountant and started his career in 2005 at Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP, where he spent six years in the Life Science, Biotech and Venture Capital Group.
"I am really excited to welcome Franco to our leadership team," said Tom Butler, Biomea's CEO and Chairman of the Board. "His extensive experience in financial operations will help us build systems that will support our growth as we develop our pipeline of preclinical and clinical assets. We are on track to submit our IND to the FDA for BMF-219 during the second half of this year, and our strong balance sheet provides us ample funding not only to fully explore BMF-219 in multiple tumor types, but also to build out our proprietary irreversible platform, and progress multiple earlier stage pipeline molecules into the clinic. On behalf of the entire Biomea team, I welcome Franco and look forward to his contributions."
"I have worked together with Franco in the past, and I could not be happier he joined as the CFO of Biomea," said Eric Aguiar, M.D., Lead Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee at Biomea. "Franco is very knowledgeable, structured, and will help Biomea continue to build organizational systems to grow and support the full clinical exploration of Biomea's portfolio of small molecules."
"I am thrilled to join Biomea, particularly on the heels of its successful IPO in April and strong pipeline of clinical catalysts. I have worked with many of the leadership in the past and know first-hand their track record and commitment to develop novel irreversible small molecules that transform treatments in a targeted, patient friendly manner," said Mr. Valle.
Mr. Valle will be joined by Terrie Phan, who will become Vice President and Corporate Controller of Biomea. Ms. Phan is also a licensed CPA and has worked most of her career supporting growth-oriented biotech companies, serving as a Controller, expert Accounting Manager as well as a Financial Planner and SOX Compliance Manager. Mr. Valle will assume the financial leadership from Sunny Lee. The company thanks Ms. Lee for her contributions and support during the IPO process and the transition from being a private company to a public corporation.
About Biomea Fusion
Biomea Fusion is a preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of irreversible small molecules to treat patients with genetically defined cancers. An irreversible small molecule drug is a synthetic compound that forms a permanent bond to its target protein and offers a number of potential advantages over conventional reversible drugs, including greater target selectivity, lower drug exposure and the ability to drive a deeper, more durable response. Leveraging its extensive expertise in irreversible binding chemistry and development, the Company built its proprietary FUSION System discovery platform to advance a pipeline of novel irreversible, small molecule therapies. The lead product candidate, BMF-219, is an orally bioavailable, potent and selective irreversible inhibitor of menin, an important transcriptional regulator known to play a direct role in oncogenic signaling in multiple cancers. In preclinical studies, administration of BMF-219 has resulted in robust anti-tumor responses across a range of liquid and solid tumor models and has been well-tolerated in animal studies. Biomea Fusion is developing BMF-219 for the treatment of liquid and solid tumors that are highly dependent on menin, including leukemias containing the mixed lineage leukemia ("MLL") fusion protein. The Company is currently completing investigational new drug ("IND") enabling studies and expects to file an IND application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the second half of 2021. Beyond BMF-219, the Company is utilizing its novel platform to develop irreversible treatments against other high-value oncogenic drivers of cancer and expects to nominate its second development candidate in the first half of 2022. Biomea Fusion's goal is to utilize its capabilities and platform to become a leader in developing irreversible small molecules in order to maximize the depth and durability of clinical benefit when treating various cancers.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements contained in this press release regarding matters that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Because such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the potential safety, efficacy, and continued development of BMF-219, the timing for completing the IND filing or starting the clinical development, the building out our proprietary irreversible platform and progress made in early-stage small pipeline molecules through their preclinical development, including the timing for nominating development candidates in each program. These statements often include words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "estimate," "seek," "will," "may," or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which involve factors or circumstances that are beyond the Company's control. Any forward-looking statements in this statement are based on management's current expectations of future events and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by such forward-looking statements. Risks that contribute to the uncertain nature of the forward-looking statements include: the success, cost, and timing of the Company's product candidate development activities and planned IND-enabling and clinical trials, the Company's ability to execute on its strategy, regulatory developments in the United States, the Company's ability to fund operations, and the impact that the current COVID-19 pandemic will have on the Company's clinical trials and pre-clinical studies, supply chain, and operations, as well as those risks and uncertainties set forth in the Company's Quarterly Report on Form Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2021, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 27, 202, and its other filings filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission filed from time. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee that the events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur, and the timing of events and circumstances and actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date on which they were made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update such statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made.
Biomea Contact:
Ramses Erdtmann
President - Biomea Fusion, Inc.
[email protected]
Phone: 805-455-1313
