Cambridge, Mass. – July 7, 2015 – Nimbus Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on harnessing the power of computational chemistry to design breakthroughs for serious, underserved diseases, today announced the appointment of industry leaders Mark Iwicki and George P. Vlasuk, Ph.D., as independent members of its Board of Directors.
“We are thrilled to have Mark and George share their expertise and leadership skills as Nimbus Therapeutics takes on the challenges and opportunities of its next critical phase of growth,” said Don Nicholson, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Nimbus.
Mr. Iwicki and Dr. Vlasuk join Elaine Jones, Ph.D., Executive Director of Pfizer Venture Investments, and Chris Christoffersen, Ph.D., General Partner with Lightstone Ventures, who also joined Nimbus’ Board as part of Nimbus’ recent $43 million Series B financing round.
“Along with our existing Board members from the Series A investment, the contributions of our new Board members will be instrumental as we continue to advance the Phase I clinical program for our ACC inhibitor for the treatment of NASH and related disorders, progress our pipeline, and pursue our mission of turning difficult targets into medicines that matter,” added Dr. Nicholson.
“Nimbus’ unique computational technology-driven model for drug discovery and development has yielded a pipeline of novel small molecule compounds with truly exciting, breakthrough approaches to some of the most sought-after yet elusive targets in oncology, metabolism and inflammation,” said Mr. Iwicki. “I look forward to working with the leadership team and fellow Board members as Nimbus continues to make significant strides as a clinical-stage company committed to improving patients’ lives.”
Mark Iwicki has 25 years of experience as a pharmaceutical industry leader managing all stages of drug development and commercialization in multiple therapeutic areas for several high-performance companies. Most recently, Mr. Iwicki served as CEO of Civitas Therapeutics, which was sold to Acorda Therapeutics in 2014. Prior to joining Civitas, he was President and CEO of Blend Therapeutics, a nanotechnology oncology biotech company. He also served as President and CEO of Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, where he provided leadership for the successful launch of that company, which was created following the acquisition of Sepracor by Dainippon Sumitomo Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Iwicki also previously held key senior leadership roles with Sepracor and Novartis Pharmaceuticals. He currently also sits on the Board of Directors for Kala Pharmaceuticals, Allergen Research Corporation and Taris Biomedical.
George P. Vlasuk, Ph.D., is a scientifically-trained executive with nearly 30 years of leadership experience in drug discovery and development at small and large biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Vlasuk currently is President and CEO at Navitor Pharmaceuticals. Before joining Navitor, he served as CEO of Sirtris, a GlaxoSmithKline Company. Prior to Sirtris, Dr. Vlasuk was Vice President, Metabolic Disease and Hemophilia Research, at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Vlasuk also previously served as Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Vice President of Research and Development at Corvas International, prior to the merger of Corvas and Dendreon Corporation. Earlier in his career, Dr. Vlasuk led a research team at Merck and Co., and was responsible for multiple discovery programs in the field of cardiovascular medicine. Dr. Vlasuk is the author of more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications, book chapters and reviews, and 38 issued U.S. and foreign patents.
About Nimbus
Nimbus Therapeutics is a biotechnology company headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts (U.S.). It is pioneering the application of computational chemistry to design breakthroughs for the treatment of substantial and underserved human diseases. The company’s focus on metabolic diseases, cancer and immune-inflammatory disorders reflects the mechanistic relationship between these disorders, and Nimbus’ ability to rapidly tackle well validated targets as well as those that have proven intractable to the approaches taken by others in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. Nimbus’ most advanced program, an allosteric inhibitor of acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is currently in Phase I clinical testing. To learn more, please visit www.nimbustx.com.