SAN FRANCISCO, April 1, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Audentes
Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: BOLD), a biotechnology company
focused on developing and commercializing innovative gene therapy
products for patients living with serious, life-threatening rare
diseases, today announced that Mark A.
Meltz, J.D. has joined the company as Senior Vice President,
General Counsel and Sarah J. Spencer
has joined the company as Vice President, Corporate
Communications. In addition, Thomas
P. Soloway, currently Senior Vice President, Chief Financial
Officer, has been promoted to the newly created position of
Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer.
Tom will continue to lead the finance, accounting, and investor
relations functions. Mark will lead the legal, compliance,
and corporate governance functions. Sarah will be responsible
for internal and external communications to build global awareness
of the company, its mission, culture, and innovative product
portfolio.
"Tom's promotion is reflective of his outstanding leadership of
finance, accounting, and investor relations, as well as his
significant contributions to our overall corporate strategy,"
stated Matthew R. Patterson,
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "We are also thrilled
that Mark and Sarah are joining Audentes at this exciting time.
Both are experienced leaders with significant industry and subject
matter expertise which will be invaluable as we continue to advance
our portfolio of product candidates through clinical and regulatory
milestones and build a commercial organization."
Mark has nearly 20 years of leadership experience serving in
various roles at global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies
as well as a top international law firm. He joins Audentes
from PaxVax, a specialty vaccines company, where he managed
business development, legal, compliance, and government
affairs/public policy functions, and led the company's October 2018 sale to Emergent BioSolutions.
Prior to joining PaxVax, Mark worked at Biogen Idec (now Biogen),
where he served as the U.S. commercial lead lawyer for
Tysabri® and
Tecfidera® (including for its US
launch), and as the lead lawyer for global medical affairs.
Earlier in his career, Mark served as Head of Legal for
Novartis Vaccines for North
America and Latin America
(including for the U.S. launch of
Menveo®). Before joining the
industry, Mark practiced law at the international law firm Bingham
McCutchen LLP (now part of Morgan
Lewis & Bockius LLP), where he focused on mergers and
acquisitions, venture capital financing, securities regulation, and
general corporate matters. Mark earned his Juris Doctor from
Boston College Law School, Magna Cum
Laude, and his Bachelor of Arts with Departmental Honors in
Psychology from Yale University.
Sarah has more than 20 years of experience in healthcare and
life sciences communications. She joins Audentes from
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) where she was most recently Head, US
Corporate Communications. Sarah spent 13 years at GSK working in a
variety of global communications roles both in the UK and the US
where she had responsibility for corporate media relations,
financial communications, crisis communications, reputation
management, and product and pipeline communications. Sarah
has worked directly with CEO & C-suite executives extensively.
Prior to GSK, Sarah worked at Elan Pharmaceuticals (now Perrigo
Company) where she led the launch communications for
Tysabri® and helped to build the
profile of the company's neurology pipeline. Sarah also worked at
Berry PR, a healthcare public relations agency, where she developed
and executed communications strategies and campaigns for small and
emerging biotech clients. Sarah began her career at Rite Aid
Corporation where she served for eight years as a lead media
spokesperson handling numerous high-profile issues and
crises. Sarah holds a B.S. in Communications & Psychology
from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
In connection with Mark's appointment, effective March 28, 2019, the company's compensation
committee granted him 104,000 stock options and 37,333 restricted
stock units as an inducement to employment pursuant to Nasdaq
Listing Rule 5635(c)(4). The exercise price of the inducement
stock options is $37.26. The option award will vest with
respect to 25 percent of the award on March 28, 2020, with the
remaining portion of the stock option award vesting monthly
thereafter, and the restricted stock units award will vest with
respect to 25 percent of the award on March 5, 2020, with the
remaining portion of the award vesting quarterly thereafter, each
subject to Mark's continued service.
About Audentes Therapeutics, Inc.
Audentes
Therapeutics (Nasdaq: BOLD) is a biotechnology company focused on
developing and commercializing innovative gene therapy products for
patients living with serious, life-threatening rare diseases.
We are currently conducting Phase 1/2 clinical studies of our lead
product candidates, AT132 for the treatment of X-linked Myotubular
Myopathy (XLMTM), and AT342 for the treatment of Crigler-Najjar
syndrome. We have two additional product candidates in
development, AT845 for the treatment of Pompe disease, and AT307
for the treatment of the CASQ2 subtype of catecholaminergic
polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CASQ2-CPVT). We are a
focused, experienced and passionate team committed to forging
strong, global relationships with the patient, research and medical
communities.
For more information regarding Audentes, please visit
www.audentestx.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains
forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor"
provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995,
including, but not limited to: the timing and nature of clinical
development activities, the timing of regulatory submissions or
approvals, and the expected benefits of the company's product
candidates. All statements other than statements of
historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking
statements. Although the company believes that the
expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are
reasonable, the company cannot guarantee future events, results,
actions, levels of activity, performance or achievements, and the
timing and results of biotechnology development and potential
regulatory approval is inherently uncertain. Forward-looking
statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause
the company's actual activities or results to differ significantly
from those expressed in any forward-looking statement, including
risks and uncertainties related to the company's ability to advance
its product candidates, obtain regulatory approval of and
ultimately commercialize its product candidates, the timing and
results of preclinical and clinical trials, the company's ability
to fund development activities and achieve development goals,
establish and scale-up manufacturing processes that comply with
regulatory requirements, protect intellectual property and
other risks and uncertainties described under the heading
"Risk Factors" in documents the company files from time to time
with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These
forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press
release, and the company undertakes no obligation to revise or
update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or
circumstances after the date hereof.
Audentes Contacts:
Investor Contact:
Andrew Chang
415.818.1033
achang@audentestx.com
Media Contact:
Katie Hogan
415.951.3398
khogan@audentestx.com
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