Translate Bio Appoints Dr. Rand Sutherland as President
-- 20 years of combined industry, medical and academic expertise in pulmonary and rare disease to support continued advancement of mRNA therapeutic pipeline --
LEXINGTON, Mass., March 22, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Translate Bio (Nasdaq: TBIO), a clinical-stage messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics company, today announced that Rand Sutherland, MD, MPH, has been appointed President effective March 22, 2021, Dr. Sutherland's first day of employment. Dr. Sutherland brings 20 years of combined industry, medical and academic expertise in pulmonary and rare diseases to this role. His most recent industry experience includes strategic and operational direction of Global Medical Affairs at Sanofi Genzyme, where he led the teams focused on medical evidence generation and engagement across the unit’s specialty care therapeutic areas. While in academia, he served as Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at National Jewish Health, directing clinical and research efforts focused on improving care for patients with a wide range of rare and complicated pulmonary diseases.
As President of Translate Bio, Dr. Sutherland will be responsible for research and development, corporate development and program management, including portfolio and pipeline strategy with a focus on prioritizing and optimizing the Company’s R&D opportunities while evaluating corporate and business development prospects.
“Rand’s deep clinical knowledge and expertise coupled with his corporate strategy leadership across various pulmonary and rare diseases will be instrumental as we continue to advance our pipeline of mRNA therapeutics,” said Ronald Renaud, chief executive officer of Translate Bio. “Rand will be an integral part of the leadership team as we continue to grow the company and advance and broaden our pipeline opportunities. I am excited to welcome Rand to Translate Bio as we work toward our goal of developing transformative mRNA medicines for patients.”
“I am excited to join Translate Bio, and to work closely with the entire team to help build on the pioneering work to develop a new class of mRNA medicines,” said Dr. Sutherland. “It has always been my goal as a physician and in industry to advance novel medicines with potentially significant impact, and I believe the platform has great potential to help patients suffering from debilitating genetic diseases.”
Prior to joining Translate Bio, Dr. Sutherland served for seven years at Sanofi Genzyme, serving most recently as Global Head of Medical Affairs, and prior to that Head of the Rare Diseases Development therapeutic area. Dr. Sutherland’s strategic leadership in clinical development and medical affairs has been critical to the development and launch of medicines for lysosomal storage diseases, rare blood and other genetic diseases, and pulmonary and immunological diseases. Before joining industry, Dr. Sutherland was Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado and Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at National Jewish Health in Denver, where he cared for patients and led an NIH-funded clinical and translational research program focused on severe asthma and other complicated pulmonary diseases.
Dr. Sutherland earned a BA from Oberlin College, an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health, and his MD from the University of Chicago. He completed his post-doctoral training in Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and completed a fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Colorado.
About Translate Bio
Translate Bio is a clinical-stage mRNA therapeutics company developing a new class of potentially transformative medicines to treat diseases caused by protein or gene dysfunction, or to prevent infectious diseases by generating protective immunity. Translate Bio is primarily focused on applying its technology to treat pulmonary diseases with a lead pulmonary candidate being evaluated as an inhaled treatment for cystic fibrosis (CF) in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial. Additional pulmonary diseases are being evaluated in discovery-stage research programs that utilize a proprietary lung delivery platform. Translate Bio also believes its technology may apply broadly to a wide range of diseases, including diseases that affect the liver. Additionally, the platform may be applied to various classes of treatments, such as therapeutic antibodies or protein degradation. Translate Bio is also pursuing the development of mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases under a collaboration with Sanofi Pasteur. For more information about the Company, please visit www.translate.bio or on Twitter at @TranslateBio.
Translate Bio Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those regarding: Translate Bio’s expectations regarding the anticipated contributions of Dr. Sutherland to the leadership team and the Company’s platform; Translate Bio’s plans to continue to grow the Company and broaden its pipeline opportunities; Translate Bio’s goal of developing transformative mRNA medicines for patients; Translate Bio’s belief that its technology may be applied to a wide range of diseases; and Translate Bio’s plans, strategies and prospects for its business, including its lead development programs. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “target,” “would” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Such statements are subject to numerous important factors, risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events or results to differ materially from current expectations and beliefs, including but not limited to: the current and potential future impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Translate Bio’s business, financial condition, operations and liquidity; Translate Bio’s ability to advance the development of its platform and programs under the timelines it projects, demonstrate the requisite safety and efficacy of its product candidates and replicate in clinical trials any positive findings from preclinical studies or early-stage clinical trials; Translate Bio’s ability to enroll patients in its ongoing clinical trial of MRT5005; whether interim data from the Phase 1/2 clinical trial of MRT5005 will be predictive of the final results of that trial; the content and timing of decisions made by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, other regulatory authorities and investigational review boards at clinical trial sites, including decisions as it relates to ongoing and planned clinical trials; Translate Bio’s ability to obtain, maintain and enforce necessary patent and other intellectual property protection; the availability of significant cash required to fund operations; competitive factors; general economic and market conditions and other important risk factors set forth under the caption “Risk Factors” in Translate Bio’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on March 1, 2021 and in any other subsequent filings made with the SEC by Translate Bio. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and Translate Bio specifically disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Translate Bio Contacts:
Investor Relations
Teri Dahlman
Tel: +1 (617) 817-8655
[email protected]
Media Relations
Maura Gavaghan
Tel: +1 (617) 233-1154
[email protected]