SAB Biotherapeutics Announces New Appointments to its Board of Directors
SIOUX FALLS, S.D.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SAB Biotherapeutics (SAB), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a novel immunotherapy platform to produce specifically targeted, high potency, fully human polyclonal antibodies without the need for human serum, today announced the appointment of Mani Mohindru, PhD, and Mervyn Turner, PhD to its Board of Directors.
“We are excited to welcome Drs. Mohindru and Turner to our Board of Directors. Each industry executive brings a wealth of corporate strategy, drug development and financial expertise,” said Eddie J. Sullivan, PhD, co-founder, president and CEO of SAB Biotherapeutics. “Both Drs. Mohindru and Turner are joining SAB at a pivotal time as we continue to advance a new class of immunotherapies that leverage the native human immune response and match the evolution of human disease. We look forward to their contributions as we develop our robust pipeline, spanning multiple therapeutic areas, using our novel technology platform.”
Dr. Mohindru is a senior biopharmaceutical executive with several years of industry leadership as well as Wall Street experience. Most recently, she was the CEO of CereXis, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing treatments for rare tumors. Previously, Dr. Mohindru was Chief Financial Officer and Chief Strategy Officer of Cara Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CARA), a company focused on developing therapies for pruritus and pain. Earlier, she served as Chief Strategy Officer at Curis, Inc. (Nasdaq: CRIS), where she was instrumental in the development of overall strategy for its oncology focused pipeline. Dr. Mohindru also spent several years as an equity research analyst covering the biotechnology sector at ThinkEquity, LLC, Credit Suisse and UBS. She also co-founded Immtox LLC, a privately-held biotechnology company, and was a healthcare industry consultant at Axon Healthcare Partners and SAI Healthcare (acquired by IMS Health). Currently, she also serves as a Member of the Executive Advisory Board of the Chemistry of Life Processes Institute at Northwestern University. Dr. Mohindru received her PhD in Neurosciences from Northwestern University.
Dr. Mervyn Turner has nearly 35 years of experience in pharmaceutical drug discovery, research and development, licensing and business development, emerging markets strategy development and implementation. He currently operates his own consulting firm, MJ Turner Consulting, where he counsels biotech, pharma, venture capital and investment banking firms. He spent 27 years at Merck & Co. Inc., holding positions of increasing responsibility in Merck Research Laboratories before joining the company’s Executive Committee as Chief Strategy Officer. Since his retirement from Merck & Co., he is currently an Advisor to Bay City Capital, a San Francisco-based venture firm, to Bridge Medicines, a commercial incubator for early stage innovation based in New York City, and to Adagene, a China-based therapeutic antibody company. Dr Turner is also a member of the Board of EnGeneIC (Sydney, Australia), and the Chairman of the Board of LUNAC. He also serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Blade Therapeutics and Spinogenix. Additionally, Dr. Turner is a Senior Advisor to the Healthcare group of Lazard, a leading financial services and investment banking firm. He holds his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Sheffield.
“I am excited to have the opportunity to join the Board of SAB, to help foster the adoption of the company’s unique capabilities in meeting the therapeutic needs of both the current, and future pandemics,” said Mervyn Turner, PhD. “I also look forward to helping to drive the SAB platform into novel therapeutic areas outside infectious disease, where polyclonal antibody technology offers unique capabilities in areas of significant unmet medical need.”
About SAB Biotherapeutics, Inc.
SAB Biotherapeutics, Inc. (SAB) is a clinical-stage, biopharmaceutical company advancing a new class of immunotherapies leveraging fully human polyclonal antibodies. Utilizing some of the most complex genetic engineering and antibody science in the world, SAB has developed the only platform that can rapidly produce natural, specifically-targeted, high-potency, human polyclonal immunotherapies at commercial scale. SAB-185, a fully-human polyclonal antibody therapeutic candidate for COVID-19, is being developed with initial funding supported by the Biomedical Advanced Research Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense (DoD) Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND) Joint Project Lead for Enabling Biotechnologies (JPL-EB). In addition to COVID-19, the company’s pipeline also includes programs in Type 1 diabetes, organ transplant and influenza. For more information visit: www.sabbiotherapeutics.com or follow @SABBantibody on Twitter.