– USA, IL – Exicure, Inc. (NASDAQ: XCUR), a pioneer in gene regulatory and immunotherapeutic drugs utilizing spherical nucleic acid technology, today announced the appointments of Dr. Betsy Garofalo, M.D., and Andrew Sassine to its Board of Directors.
“We are pleased to welcome Betsy and Andrew to our Board at a critical time for Exicure, having made significant progress with the development of cavrotolimod in oncology and XCUR-FXN in Friedreich’s ataxia. Betsy’s distinguished career and significant clinical development experience and Andrew’s financial and institutional investor experience will provide important perspective to our Board,” said Board Chairman, Timothy Walbert. “We look forward to the collective experience they will bring as Exicure advances its pipeline of innovative investigational therapies and we look to deliver on the promise of Exicure’s proprietary Spherical Nucleic Acid, or SNA technology.”
Exicure also announced that Dr. David Walt has announced his intention not to stand for re-election at the upcoming 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.
“We would like to thank David for his incredible energy and support as we have formed and shaped the trajectory of Exicure,” said CEO, Dr. David Giljohann.
About Dr. Betsy Garofalo
Dr. Garofalo is a biopharma executive with more than 25 years of experience in global clinical development and regulatory affairs. Since 2016, Dr. Garofalo has served as the principal for EAG Pharma Consulting LLC. Before then, she served in numerous leadership roles including as SVP and Global Head of Clinical Development for Novartis and as a member of its Global Development Leadership Team, Chair of the Novartis Portfolio Stewardship Board, Co-Head of the Novartis Neuroscience Franchise, Head of the Neuroscience Therapy Area at Astellas, Ann Arbor Site Head of Worldwide Regulatory Affairs at Pfizer and Ann Arbor Site Head of Neuroscience at Pfizer.
Dr. Garofalo currently serves on the Board of Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc., the Institute for Advanced Clinical Trials in Children, and is the Chair of the Business Advisory Board for the Epilepsy Foundation of America.
“I am excited to be joining the Board of Exicure,” said Dr. Garofalo. “The Exicure SNA platform technology offers great promise of producing new therapeutics directed towards neurological diseases with high unmet medical need and high morbidity.”
She has an M.D. from the Indiana University School of Medicine and completed fellowships in pediatric neurology and epilepsy at the University of Michigan Medical School.
About Andrew Sassine
Andrew Sassine currently serves as CFO and member of the board of directors of Arcturus Therapeutics. He also serves on the board of directors of ICAD, Inc., a cancer detection software company utilizing artificial intelligence. He previously was a fund manager at Fidelity Investments where he managed the Fidelity Small Cap Stock Fund and the Fidelity International Small Cap Opportunities Fund.
“I am excited to join the Exicure team and its distinguished Board of Directors,” said Andrew Sassine. “I believe their technology has the ability to change the face of medicine by expanding and facilitating the delivery of DNA and RNA medicines to new and more challenging diseases.”
He has an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
About Exicure
Exicure, Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing therapeutics for neurology, immuno-oncology, inflammatory diseases, and other genetic disorders based on our proprietary Spherical Nucleic Acid, or SNA technology. Exicure believes that its proprietary SNA architecture has distinct chemical and biological properties that may provide advantages over other nucleic acid therapeutics and may have therapeutic potential to target diseases not typically addressed with other nucleic acid therapeutics. Exicure is in preclinical development of XCUR-FXN an SNA–based therapeutic candidate, for the treatment of Friedreich’s ataxia. Exicure’s therapeutic candidate cavrotolimod is in a Phase 1b/2 clinical trial in patients with advanced solid tumors. Exicure is based in Chicago, IL, and in Cambridge, MA.
For more information: http://www.exicuretx.com/
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