– USA, MA – Syros Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:SYRS), a biopharmaceutical company pioneering the discovery and development of medicines to control the expression of disease-driving genes, today announced the appointment of Srinivas Akkaraju, M.D., Ph.D., to the Company’s board of directors.
“Srini is a recognized leader who brings a unique strategic perspective, combining deep scientific knowledge with strong business acumen to help innovative biotechnology companies create value for patients and shareholders,” said Nancy Simonian, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Syros. “His experience and insights will be tremendous assets to Syros as we continue to evolve into a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company driven to delivering medicines that control the expression of disease-driving genes to provide a profound and durable benefit for patients. We are thrilled to welcome Srini to our board.”
Dr. Akkaraju has nearly 20 years of investment and operational experience in the life sciences sector. He is a Founder and Managing General Partner at Samsara BioCapital. Prior to founding Samsara BioCapital, he served as a General Partner of Sofinnova Ventures from April 2013 to June 2016, Managing Director of New Leaf Venture Partners from January 2009 to April 2013, and Managing Director of Panorama Capital, a private equity firm that he helped found, from September 2006 to December 2008. Before co-founding Panorama Capital, he was a Partner at J.P. Morgan Partners, and earlier in his career, he was in Business and Corporate Development at Genentech (now a wholly owned member of The Roche Group). Dr. Akkaraju currently serves as chairman of the board of Versartis and as a director of Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Seattle Genetics and aTyr Pharma. Previously, he served on the boards of Barrier Therapeutics, Eyetech Pharmaceuticals, ZS Pharma, Synageva Biopharma Corp. and Amarin Corp. Dr. Akkaraju received an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Immunology from Stanford University and undergraduate degrees in Biochemistry and Computer Science from Rice University.
“Syros’ gene control platform has enormous potential to create medicines across a broad spectrum of diseases that have eluded other genomics-based approaches, starting with its lead drug candidate SY-1425,” said Dr. Akkaraju. “In just four years, its platform has produced a robust pipeline of clinical and preclinical programs, fueling the Company’s growth from a start-up with a novel idea to a public company with two drug candidates in clinical trials. I look forward to working with the board and leadership to build a great and enduring company that transforms patients’ lives and creates value for investors.”
As previously announced, Stéphane Bancel did not stand for reelection to the Company’s board of directors at the annual stockholders meeting held on June 8, 2017.
“On behalf of our board of directors and management team, I also want to thank Stéphane for his years of service to Syros as a director,” Dr. Simonian said. “His experience building and financing early-stage companies contributed greatly to our development as a Company, and we are grateful for his thoughtful guidance over the years.”
About Syros Pharmaceuticals
Syros Pharmaceuticals is pioneering the understanding of the non-coding region of the genome to advance a new wave of medicines that control expression of disease-driving genes. Syros has built a proprietary platform that is designed to systematically and efficiently analyze this unexploited region of DNA in human disease tissue to identify and drug novel targets linked to genomically defined patient populations. Because gene expression is fundamental to the function of all cells, Syros’ gene control platform has broad potential to create medicines that achieve profound and durable benefit across a range of diseases. Syros is currently focused on cancer and immune-mediated diseases and is advancing a growing pipeline of gene control medicines. Syros’ lead drug candidates are SY-1425, a selective RARα agonist in a Phase 2 clinical trial for genomically defined subsets of patients with acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome, and SY-1365, a selective CDK7 inhibitor in a Phase 1 clinical trial for patients with advanced solid tumors, including transcriptionally dependent cancers such as triple negative breast, small cell lung and ovarian cancers. Led by a team with deep experience in drug discovery, development and commercialization, Syros is located in Cambridge, Mass.
For more information : http://www.syros.com
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