Kymera Therapeutics Appoints Healthcare Industry Leader John Maraganore, Ph.D., to Board of Directors
WATERTOWN, Mass., Jan. 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kymera Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:KYMR), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company advancing targeted protein degradation to deliver novel small molecule protein degrader medicines, today announced the appointment of John Maraganore, Ph.D. to its Board of Directors. Dr. Maraganore joins Kymera's Board after having led Alnylam Pharmaceuticals as founding CEO and Director and transformed the field of RNA therapeutics for the last nearly 20 years.
"John has been a true pioneer and an inspiration for the whole biotech industry. As founding CEO of Alnylam, he has built one of the most successful biotech companies, evolving RNA therapeutics into a commercial stage therapeutic reality for patients around the globe." said Nello Mainolfi, PhD, Co-Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Kymera Therapeutics. "Given our ambitions at Kymera to take a similar path and build a fully integrated global biopharma company based on targeted protein degradation, it is especially fitting and exceptionally exciting to welcome John to our Board of Directors and work with him directly to accomplish our goals and vision."
"Targeted protein degradation is a very exciting field with real transformative potential. Kymera's differentiated pipeline and deep and unique platform investments across the spectrum of degrader approaches has clearly positioned the company as a true pioneer in the space," said Dr Maraganore. "Kymera has already demonstrated first in class, clear and profound proof-of-mechanism and proof-of-biology with KT-474, and this year is advancing 3 clinical programs in patients across immune-inflammatory and oncology indications. Importantly, the team is advancing a new generation of additional programs, leveraging the company's unique platform capabilities, making now an exciting time to join Kymera's Board and contribute to our path to becoming a disease-agnostic, global degrader medicine company."
Dr. John Maraganore served as the founding CEO and a Director of Alnylam from 2002 to 2021, where he built and led the company from early platform research on RNA interference through global approval and commercialization of the first four RNAi therapeutic medicines, ONPATTRO®, GIVLAARI®, OXLUMO®, and Leqvio®. At Alnylam, he also led the company's value creation strategy, building $25B in market capitalization, including over 20 major pharmaceutical alliances. He continues to serve on the Alnylam Scientific Advisory Board. Prior to Alnylam, he served as an officer and a member of the management team for Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he was responsible for the company's product franchises in oncology, and cardiovascular, inflammatory and metabolic diseases, in addition to leadership of M&A, strategy, and biotherapeutics functions. Before Millennium, he served as Director of Molecular Biology and Director of Market and Business Development at Biogen, Inc. where he invented and led the discovery and development of ANGIOMAX® (bivalirudin) for injection. Previously, he was a scientist at ZymoGenetics, Inc. and the Upjohn Company. Dr. Maraganore received his M.S. and Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Chicago. He is currently a Venture Partner at ARCH Venture Partners, a Venture Advisor at Atlas Ventures, and an Executive Partner at RTW Investments. He is also Chair of the Board of Directors of Hemab Therapeutics and a member of the Board of Directors of Agios Pharmaceuticals, Beam Therapeutics and the Biotechnology Industry Organization, where he was Chair from 2017-2019. In addition, he serves on the Board of the Termeer Foundation – committed to continuing the legacy of the late Henri A. Termeer, as Chair of the n-Lorem Foundation Advisory Council – committed to meeting the needs of patients with nano-rare diseases, and as a strategic advisor to SalioGen, SQZ Biotechnologies, and other innovative companies.
About Kymera Therapeutics
Kymera Therapeutics (NASDAQ:KYMR) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company founded with the mission to discover, develop, and commercialize transformative therapies while leading the evolution of targeted protein degradation, a transformative new approach to address previously intractable disease targets. Kymera's Pegasus™ platform enables the discovery of novel small molecule degraders designed to harness the body's natural protein recycling machinery to degrade disease-causing proteins, with a focus on undrugged nodes in validated pathways currently inaccessible with conventional therapeutics. Kymera's lead programs are IRAK4, IRAKIMiD, and STAT3, each of which addresses high impact targets within the IL-1R/TLR or JAK/STAT pathways, providing the opportunity to treat a broad range of immune-inflammatory diseases, hematologic malignancies, and solid tumors. Kymera's goal is to be a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company at the forefront of this new class of protein degrader medicines, with a pipeline of novel degrader medicines targeting disease-causing proteins that were previously intractable.
Founded in 2016, Kymera is headquartered in Watertown, Mass. Kymera has been named a "Fierce 15" biotechnology company by Fierce Biotech and has been recognized by the Boston Business Journal as one of Boston's "Best Places to Work." For more information about our people, science, and pipeline, please visit www.kymeratx.com or follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn.
Investor Contact:
Bruce Jacobs
Chief Financial Officer
[email protected]
857-285-5300
Chris Brinzey
Managing Director, Westwicke
[email protected]
339-970-2843
Media Contact:
Tyler Gagnon
Director, Corporate Communications
[email protected]
508-904-9446
