On June 13, 2019 Unum Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: UMRX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of cellular immunotherapies to treat cancer based on its novel T cell technology platforms, reported new additions to its leadership team. Matthew Osborne will be joining as Chief Financial Officer, effective June 24, 2019 (Press release, Unum Therapeutics, JUN 13, 2019, View Source [SID1234537075]). Jessica Sachs, M.D., will become Chief Medical Officer, effective July 15, 2019, replacing Michael Vasconcelles, M.D., who is transitioning to a clinical advisory role and departing the company . Mert Aktar has been appointed to the newly created role of Head of Business and Corporate Development. Each new executive has a proven track record of excellence and adds decades of experience to the Unum leadership team.
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"We are excited to welcome Matt, Jessica, and Mert to the leadership team at Unum. They each bring deep experience to their respective functions, and their contributions will be important to our work building our pipeline of engineered T cell therapies across a broad range of cancers," said Chuck Wilson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Unum. "I would also like to thank Mike Vasconcelles for his enormous contributions at Unum over the last several years, and I look forward to continuing to work with him as he transitions into an advisory role."
"I’ve supported many companies throughout my career helping to bring innovative and transformative new therapies to patients, and am excited about Unum’s cutting-edge T cell therapy platforms, ACTR and BOXR, with potential best-in-class product profiles in lymphoma and myeloma, and expanding these platforms in solid tumors," said Mr. Osborne. "I look forward to joining the talented leadership team at Unum and working together to make a difference in the lives of patients with cancer."
Mr. Osborne joins Unum with over 20 years of biotechnology capital markets and corporate industry experience from past roles as an equity research analyst on Wall Street and as a highly-respected corporate communications and investor relations professional in the biotechnology industry. Most recently, he was vice president of corporate affairs, communications and investor relations at Voyager Therapeutics, and he also served as global head of investor relations at Shire plc (now Takeda) during its acquisitions of Baxalta Inc. and Dyax Corp., vice president of corporate communications and investor relations at Synageva BioPharma from its public inception through its acquisition by Alexion Pharmaceuticals, and investor relations at Vertex Pharmaceuticals as part of an Institutional Investor highly-ranked investor relations team. On Wall Street as a biotechnology sell-side analyst, he covered small-to-large cap biotechnology companies at Lazard Capital Markets and Leerink Swann (now SVB Leerink) analyzing the development of several blockbuster drugs across multiple therapeutic areas. Mr. Osborne received a B.S. in Biology from Syracuse University and M.B.A. from the D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University.
Dr. Sachs has over 16 years of experience in oncology and pediatrics, including a decade in industry. She has been serving as Vice President of Clinical Sciences at Unum since 2017, where she has been responsible for the clinical development strategy and medical and translational oversight of the Unum portfolio. Prior to joining Unum, Dr. Sachs spent several years at Takeda/Millennium where she led multiple clinical programs in oncology and transplantation, and at Genzyme Corporation, where she was responsible for post-marketing safety surveillance and risk management activities for a variety of oncology products. Dr. Sachs has been a faculty member of the Harvard Medical School since 2007 and is an Assistant in Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She completed her fellowship in pediatric hematology and oncology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Children’s Hospital Boston. She received her M.D. from Washington University in St. Louis and her B.S. from Duke University.
Mr. Aktar has 19 years of multinational experience in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, including leadership roles in business development and technical operations. He joins Unum from Shire plc (now Takeda) where he most recently served as global head of hematology and immunology business development. While at Shire, Mr. Aktar led a team responsible for identification, evaluation and execution of global business development opportunities and facilitated the company’s acquisitions of Baxalta Inc. and Dyax Corp. Prior to Shire, Mr. Aktar held positions of increasing responsibility at Biogen, ensuring clinical and commercial supply of biologics across diverse therapeutic areas. Mr. Aktar received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, M.S. in Engineering Management from Tufts University, and M.B.A. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management.