Harness Therapeutics Appoints Seasoned Biopharmaceutical Leader, Ms. Meenu Chhabra Karson, as Board Chair
24 Abril 2024 - 2:00AM
Ms. Chhabra Karson brings highly
successful 20-year track record in industry leadership
roles
Cambridge, UK, April 24 2024:
Harness Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on protein
upregulation to develop next generation therapeutics for
neurodegenerative diseases, today announced the appointment of Ms.
Meenu Chhabra Karson as Chair of its Board of Directors. An
experienced biopharma executive, Ms. Chhabra Karson will lend her
business, scientific and operational expertise towards helping
Harness achieve its next phase of growth as it advances its
oligonucleotide-based platform for controlled upregulation of CNS
targets and its lead programme in Huntington’s disease.
Ms. Chhabra Karson brings over 20 years of
experience in the global biopharmaceutical industry spanning
leadership roles in both private and public large pharmaceutical as
well as small biotech companies. Her successful track record
includes raising more than $500 million in private and public
capital, driving strategic transactions and delivering partnerships
worth over $2 billion, meeting and accelerating value-generating
milestones, as well as developing high-performing
organizations.
Since July 2023, Ms. Chhabra Karson has served
as the Executive Chairperson of Samsara Therapeutics, a private
preclinical-stage company developing novel therapeutics for a
portfolio of neurodegenerative diseases which raised $25 million in
its Series A round. Since January 2023, Ms. Chhabra Karson has also
served on the board of Macrogenics (MGNX) and is a member of its
audit committee. Her previous board appointments include Chair of
Apexigen (APGN), sold to Pyxis Oncology (PYXS); Chair of Audit
Committee of Vallon, sold to GRI Biotech (GRI); and Chair of Audit
Committee of Fore Bio. Ms. Chhabra Karson has also served as a
biotech CEO for 15 years at Proteostasis Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTI)
and Allozyne, Inc. and was Chief Business Officer at BioXell SpA,
(SWX:BXLN). Earlier in her career, she held roles of increasing
responsibility at Novartis, latterly VP Business Development.
Jan Thirkettle, CEO of Harness
commented, “I am delighted to welcome Meenu as our new Board Chair.
Her strategic leadership, company building, and wide business
development expertise, will enhance our efforts to open up the
target space for neurodegenerative diseases. Meenu joins the
company at an important time as we advance our lead Huntington’s
disease programme towards the clinic and seek to broaden our
portfolio based on the platform we have established over the past
three years.”
Ms. Chhabra Karson added, “I am
truly excited to be appointed as Chair of Harness Therapeutics. I
believe my capabilities and experience can help advance the company
and leverage our lead Huntington’s disease programme. With a unique
approach to controlled upregulation of CNS targets we have the
potential to transform the treatment of not only Huntington’s
disease but potentially a broad array of neurodegenerative diseases
for the benefit of patients worldwide.”
Originally from Toronto, Canada, Ms. Chhabra
Karson obtained her M.B.A. from York University and her Bachelor of
Science from the University of Toronto.
***
About Harness Therapeutics
Harness Therapeutics is a biotechnology company
focused on the development of next generation therapeutics for the
treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, with a lead programme in
Huntington’s disease targeting FAN1 to limit somatic expansion.
Focussing on neurodegeneration targets with strong biology and
genetic validation, Harness Therapeutics utilises its deep
understanding of RNA biology and post-transcriptional regulation to
enable drugging of targets with oligonucleotide-based drugs to
achieve controlled increases in protein expression.
Harness Therapeutics has assembled a world-class
team focused on the mission of building the most efficient platform
for controlled upregulation of CNS targets which underpin
neurodegenerative disease. This includes extensive RNA biology and
bioinformatics expertise, specialist analytics capabilities and
unique neurological cell models. Harness Therapeutics’ unique
platform generates multiple orthogonal upregulation strategies
which are tested in highly translatable in vitro cell models to
identify constructs capable of increasing endogenous protein
translation. This specific and controlled approach to increasing
target proteins allows drugging targets which would not be
addressable using gene therapy or other modalities.
Harness Therapeutics is based in Cambridge, UK,
and was originally established by leading life science investors
Takeda Ventures and SV Health Investors’ Dementia Discovery Fund in
2020. Harness Therapeutic’s current investor base now also includes
Epidarex Capital.
For more information, please visit
https://www.harnesstx.com/ and follow us on LinkedIn.
CONTACTS:
Harness TherapeuticsDr Jan Thirkettle,
CEOinfo@Harnesstx.com
MEDiSTRAVA Sylvie Berrebi,
Frazer HallHarnesstx@medistrava.com