Cidara Therapeutics Announces Appointment of Frank Karbe as Chief Financial Officer

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cidara Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CDTX), a biotechnology company using its proprietary Cloudbreak^® platform to develop drug-Fc conjugate (DFC) immunotherapies designed to save lives and improve the standard of care for patients facing serious diseases, today announced that Frank Karbe, MBA, has been appointed Chief Financial Officer (CFO), effective February 24, 2025. Mr. Karbe will succeed Preetam Shah, Ph.D., MBA, who is departing to pursue other professional opportunities. Dr. Shah will serve as a consultant to the Company.

"We are pleased to welcome Frank to the team as we advance our long-acting influenza antiviral drug CD388 through the end of this flu season in the Phase 2b NAVIGATE study and plan for Phase 3 and beyond." said Jeffrey Stein, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Cidara. "We expect that Frank's extensive experience as a leader in the biopharma industry and proven track record for transitioning companies to multi-billion-dollar commercial organizations will prove invaluable to the strategic vision of Cidara. On behalf of the entire Cidara team, I thank Preetam for his guidance and dedication which helped position Cidara for success. We wish him luck in his future endeavors."

Mr. Karbe added, "Cidara is at an important stage in the company's evolution, with its novel DFC candidate, CD388, showing immense potential as a universal influenza preventative. Influenza continues to drive significant morbidity and mortality despite the availability of vaccines and antiviral treatments. I am excited to join the Cidara team and look forward to leveraging my experience to drive the company's growth and bring CD388 to the tens of millions of patients who can benefit from it."

Mr. Karbe is a widely experienced senior executive with over 25 years of leadership experience in life sciences, healthcare, and technology. Most recently, he served as Chief Executive Officer and President of Better Therapeutics, where he led the company to the first-ever FDA authorization of a digital therapeutic for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Previously, as President and Chief Financial Officer of Myovant Sciences, Mr. Karbe played a pivotal role in scaling the company from a startup to a publicly listed company with 500+ employees and two FDA approved products in under five years, raising over $2 billion in capital and securing a $4 billion partnership with Pfizer. He also served for over a decade as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Exelixis, where he drove the company's transformation from discovery to commercialization. Earlier in his career, he worked as an investment banker for Goldman Sachs, focusing on corporate finance and mergers & acquisitions in the life sciences industry.

About Cidara Therapeutics

Cidara Therapeutics is using its proprietary Cloudbreak^® platform to develop novel drug-Fc conjugates (DFCs) comprising targeted small molecules or peptides coupled to a proprietary human antibody fragment (Fc). Cidara's lead DFC candidate, CD388, is a long-acting antiviral designed to achieve universal prevention of seasonal and pandemic influenza with a single dose by directly inhibiting viral proliferation. In June 2023, CD388 was granted Fast Track Designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Company announced initiation of a Phase 2b trial in September 2024. Additional DFCs have been developed for oncology and in July 2024 Cidara received IND clearance for CBO421 which is intended to target CD73 in solid tumors. Cidara is headquartered in San Diego, California. For more information, please visit www.cidara.com.

Inducement Awards

In connection with the foregoing appointment, Cidara's Compensation Committee of its Board of Directors granted a non-qualified stock option award and restricted stock units (RSUs) for an aggregate of 172,500 shares of its common stock, pursuant to the Cidara Therapeutics, Inc. 2020 Inducement Incentive Plan, with a grant date of February 24, 2025. The stock option will have an exercise price equal to the closing price of Cidara's common stock on the grant date. The shares subject to the option will vest over four years, with 25% of the shares vesting on the one-year anniversary of the vesting commencement date and the balance of the shares vesting in a series of 36 successive equal monthly installments thereafter. All RSUs vest in four equal annual installments, with 1/4 vesting on each of the first, second, third and fourth anniversaries of the Quarterly Vesting Date that occurs during the calendar quarter that includes the Date of Grant. Quarterly Vesting Date means March 10, June 10, September 10 or December 10. The awards are subject to the award holder's continuous service through each vesting date and to the terms and conditions of Cidara's 2020 Inducement Incentive Plan and its standard forms of grant agreements thereunder.

The foregoing equity award was granted as an inducement material to the employee entering into employment with Cidara, in accordance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4). The Cidara Therapeutics, Inc. 2020 Inducement Incentive Plan is used exclusively for the grant of equity awards to individuals who were not previously employees of Cidara, or following a bona fide period of non-employment, as an inducement material to such individual's entering into employment with Cidara, pursuant to Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4).

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "anticipates," "expect," "intends," "believes," "may," "plan" or "will". Forward-looking statements in this release include, but are not limited to, statements related to the potential contributions of Mr. Karbe to Cidara and its stakeholders, and whether Cidara will continue advancing its flu DFC candidate through late-stage clinical development. Such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, such as unanticipated delays in or negative results from Cidara's clinical trials and other risks related to clinical development, delays in action by regulatory authorities, other obstacles on the enrollment of patients or other aspects of CD388 or other DFC development, and other risks and uncertainties associated with Cidara's business in general. These and other risks are identified under the caption "Risk Factors" in Cidara's most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and other filings subsequently made with the SEC. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date on which they were made and are based on management's assumptions and estimates as of such date. Cidara does not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of the receipt of new information, the occurrence of future events or otherwise.

INVESTOR CONTACT:

Brian Ritchie

LifeSci Advisors

(212) 915-2578

[email protected] 

MEDIA CONTACT:

Michael Fitzhugh

LifeSci Communications

(628) 234-3889

[email protected]