CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BIND Biosciences, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of highly selective targeted and programmable therapeutics called AccurinsTM, today announced that its Chief Executive Officer, Scott Minick, and its Founder and an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, Omid Farokhzad, M.D., have been awarded the prestigious Ernst & Young New England Entrepreneur of the Year in the category of Life Sciences. The Ernst & Young award recognizes accomplished entrepreneurs for their development of new technologies, improvement of quality of life, and creation of strong and vibrant corporations. Mr. Minick and Dr. Farokhzad were honored last night at an event hosted by Ernst & Young in Boston, Massachusetts.
In selecting the BIND leaders for the Entrepreneur of the Year award, the Ernst & Young judges particularly recognized the accomplishments with BIND-014, the company’s lead drug candidate for cancer, which had promising anti-tumor effects in patients with advanced or metastatic cancers reported from a clinical study in April 2012. BIND-014 is a targeted and programmable nanomedicine that has been shown in preclinical models to deliver up to ten-fold more cell-killing agent, docetaxel, to tumors than an equivalent dose of conventional docetaxel. BIND-014 demonstrates the potential of Accurins to have unique targeting to the site of disease, as the increased accumulation of docetaxel specifically to cancer tumors translated to marked improvements in anti-tumor activity and tolerability. In addition to BIND-014, BIND is developing a pipeline of novel Accurins based on the company’s proprietary platform for engineering programmable nanomedicines to create best-in-class drugs in the areas of oncology, cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases.
"This award reflects the focus, passion and dedication of two outstanding leaders, Scott and Omid, who have worked collaboratively to build BIND and develop transformative new medicines to benefit patients,” said Robert Langer, Sc.D., BIND Founder and David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT. “Scott has been an incredible entrepreneurial leader for the BIND team, focusing the team’s effort to bring the first Accurin, BIND-014, into human clinical trials and positioning the company to deliver a pipeline of Accurins for many diseases. Omid has shown at BIND his unique combination of skills as a great physician-scientist and inventor along with his inspirational talent as a visionary and big thinker who can launch strong and vital biotech companies, as he has done with BIND and several other companies developing breakthrough medicines.”
Scott Minick is the President and CEO of BIND Biosciences. Prior to BIND, Mr. Minick was a Managing Director of ARCH Venture Partners and was Director, President and COO of SEQUUS Pharmaceuticals, a public biopharmaceutical company that was acquired by ALZA. Mr. Minick was formerly an executive at Baxter International, Inc., and Eli Lilly & Company and was Chairman of the Board of California Pacific Medical Center through 2009. He received his postgraduate training in neurobiology at the Salk Institute, an M.B.A. from Northwestern University and a B.A. with Honors from the University of California at San Diego.
Omid Farokhzad, M.D., is Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and a physician-scientist in the Department of Anesthesiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is a co-founder of BIND Biosciences, Selecta Biosciences, and Blend Therapeutics. Dr. Farokhzad’s research group is focused on developing novel nanotechnologies for medical applications. He has pioneered the application of micro- and nanotechnology for high throughput development and screening of targeted drug delivery systems for a myriad of clinical applications. Dr. Farokhzad has authored more than 80 papers and is an inventor of more than 65 issued and pending patents. He completed his post-doctoral clinical and research trainings, respectively, at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Langer. He received his M.D. and M.A. from Boston University School of Medicine.
Across the United States, hundreds of inspiring and innovative individuals were selected as Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalists. Beginning in June, winners in 26 regions are honored locally for their vision, leadership, and ability to grow the successful businesses that help sustain our economy. These winners, including Mr. Minick and Dr. Farokhzad, will be eligible for the national awards, to be presented by Ernst & Young in Palm Springs in November.
About Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year®
Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year is the world's most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs. The unique award makes a difference through the way it encourages entrepreneurial activity among those with potential, and recognizes the contribution of people who inspire others with their vision, leadership and achievement. As the first and only truly global award of its kind, Entrepreneur Of The Year celebrates those who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses, recognizing them through regional, national and global awards programs in more than 140 cities in more than 50 countries.
About BIND Biosciences
BIND Biosciences is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of highly selective targeted and programmable therapeutics called AccurinsTM. BIND’s Medicinal NanoengineeringTM platform enables the design, engineering and manufacturing of Accurins with unprecedented control over drug properties to maximize trafficking to disease sites, dramatically enhancing efficacy while minimizing toxicities.
BIND is developing a pipeline of novel Accurins that hold extraordinary potential to become best-in-class drugs and improve patient outcomes in the areas of oncology, inflammatory diseases and cardiovascular disorders. BIND's lead product candidate, BIND-014, is currently in Phase 1 clinical testing in cancer patients and is designed to selectively target a surface protein upregulated in a broad range of solid tumors. BIND also develops Accurins in collaboration with pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners to enable promising pipeline candidates to achieve their full potential and to utilize selective targeting to transform the performance of important existing drug products.
BIND is backed by leading investors, Polaris Venture Partners, Flagship Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners, NanoDimension, DHK Investments, EndeavourVision and Rusnano. BIND was founded on proprietary technology from the laboratories of two leaders in the field of nanomedicine, Professors Robert Langer, David H. Koch Institute Professor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Omid Farokhzad, Associate Professor of Harvard Medical School. For more information, please visit the company's web site at www.bindbio.com.