Atalanta Therapeutics Expands Executive Team with Appointments of Chief Medical Officer and Chief Financial Officer
22 Mayo 2024 - 7:00AM
Business Wire
- Serena Hung, M.D., and Jeffrey Young will
support company’s continued progress, including two planned IND
submissions in 2025 -
Atalanta Therapeutics, a biotechnology company pioneering RNA
interference (RNAi) for the treatment of neurological diseases,
today announced the expansion of its executive team with the
appointments of Serena Hung, M.D., as chief medical officer, and
Jeffrey Young as chief financial officer. Dr. Hung is a
board-certified neurologist who has held leadership roles at
prominent CNS drug development companies, and Mr. Young is a
seasoned financial executive with capital markets expertise and
with over two decades of experience in life sciences.
“We are thrilled to welcome Jeffrey and Serena to Atalanta’s
executive team as we prepare for our next phase of growth in
building the leading CNS RNAi company,” said Alicia Secor,
Atalanta’s president and chief executive officer. “Atalanta’s
discovery efforts utilize our best-in-class di-siRNA platform and
have generated a robust portfolio of 14 current programs across our
wholly-owned and partnered pipelines. Jeffrey’s leadership will
help shape Atalanta’s strategic direction and drive our continued
sustainable growth, while Serena’s expertise will support the
transition from research to development for two of our wholly-owned
programs which we are advancing to planned IND submissions in 2025,
with a third to follow.”
“Disease-modifying therapeutic options for neurological diseases
are tragically limited, and I observed this firsthand in my years
as a clinician specializing in Huntington’s and Parkinson’s
diseases,” said Dr. Hung. “I believe Atalanta’s novel RNAi platform
could provide a much-needed breakthrough to deliver better outcomes
for these patients.”
“Atalanta’s di-siRNA technology has potential to unlock a large
universe of CNS targets, and their pipeline progress underscores
that they have the operational acumen to realize this potential for
patients,” said Mr. Young. “I’m looking forward to strategically
supporting and growing our programs to ensure continued
success.”
Dr. Hung brings to Atalanta two decades of experience in
neurology with a focus on neurodegenerative disorders, both as a
treating physician and as a biopharmaceutical leader. Previously,
Dr. Hung served as chief medical officer at Arkuda Therapeutics,
where she led preparations for clinical entry of the company’s lead
asset for the treatment of frontotemporal dementia (FTD), built the
clinical development function, and established the company’s
clinical development strategy. In previous roles at Wave Life
Sciences and Biogen, Dr. Hung led clinical development of therapies
in Huntington’s and Parkinson’s diseases, including supporting
regulatory interactions and filings. She holds a BSE in chemical
engineering from the University of Michigan and an M.D. from Wake
Forest University School of Medicine. She completed a neurology
residency at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical
Center and a research fellowship in movement disorders at the
University of Toronto. Dr. Hung sits of the Board of Directors for
the National Ataxia Foundation and is industry co-chair of the FTD
Research Roundtable.
Mr. Young joins Atalanta with more than 25 years of experience
in finance and capital markets at life sciences and medical
technology companies. He most recently served as chief financial
officer, senior vice president, and treasurer at Axial
Therapeutics, a clinical-stage company developing therapies for CNS
diseases, where he led teams across finance, accounting and tax,
among other efforts; facilitated the company’s successful Series B
and Series C financings; and developed corporate and commercial
strategy. Earlier in his career Mr. Young held CFO roles at
NASDAQ-listed companies Juniper Pharmaceutical, Ova Science,
Transmedics Group, and Lantheus Medical Imaging. Mr. Young began
his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers as a certified public
accountant and holds a B.S. in business administration from
Georgetown University.
About Atalanta Therapeutics
Atalanta Therapeutics is a biotechnology company pioneering new
treatment options for neurological diseases by utilizing its
proprietary RNA interference platform, di-siRNA, which for the
first time enables RNA interference to be deployed as a therapeutic
approach throughout the brain and spinal cord. Atalanta was founded
in 2018 by Anastasia Khvorova, Ph.D., Craig Mello, Ph.D., and Neil
Aronin, M.D., of the RNA Therapeutics Institute at the University
of Massachusetts Medical School, with a Series A funding
exclusively by F-Prime Capital and strategic collaborations with
Biogen and Genentech. Atalanta is headquartered in Boston, Mass.
For more information, visit www.atalantatx.com and follow us on
Twitter and LinkedIn.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240522797171/en/
Media: Lisa Raffensperger Ten Bridge Communications
lisa@tenbridgecommunications.com