BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Inozyme Pharma, Inc., a rare disease biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics for the treatment of disorders of abnormal mineralization, announced today the appointment of Doug Treco, Ph.D., as Chairman of the Company’s Board of Directors. Inozyme also announced that Lynne Sullivan, MST, has joined the Board as an independent director.
Dr. Treco succeeds Joseph Schlessinger, Ph.D., who served as Chairman since Inozyme’s founding in 2017 and has retired from the Board.
“We are honored to welcome Doug as Chairman of Inozyme’s Board at this important time in our history as we transition into a clinical-stage company. Doug’s proven track record building innovative life science companies will be invaluable as we prepare to bring our first product candidate into clinical trials,” said Axel Bolte, MSc, MBA, co-founder, president and chief executive officer of Inozyme Pharma. “We very much look forward to benefiting from Doug’s scientific experience and expertise as we continue to advance novel enzyme replacement therapies designed to transform the lives of patients with serious, life-threatening diseases of abnormal mineralization.”
“Inozyme’s Board and the entire management team are profoundly thankful to Dr. Schlessinger for his years of service and leadership during these early and crucial years for our company,” Axel Bolte continued. “It has been a privilege to work with someone with such a deep understanding of science, combined with a track record of forming successful healthcare companies. We have benefited greatly from his insights into scientific strategy. We wish Yossi well as he retires from our Board.”
Doug co-founded Ra Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in 2008 and was chief executive officer and a member of the Board of Directors from its inception until the company was acquired by UCB S.A. (Brussels, Belgium) in April 2020. He is currently employed by Ra Pharma where he advises UCB on the development of zilucoplan and Ra Pharmaceuticals’ macrocyclic peptide platform. Under Doug’s leadership, Ra Pharmaceuticals became a leader in macrocyclic peptide and small molecule therapeutics targeting the complement pathway and advanced its lead molecule, zilucoplan, into the clinic for multiple neuromuscular indications, including an ongoing pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial in myasthenia gravis. Prior to forming Ra Pharmaceuticals, Doug co-founded Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc., a multi-platform biopharmaceutical company focused on developing protein and gene therapy products, where he led the discovery and development of several approved biopharmaceuticals. Doug has also served as a visiting scientist in the department of molecular biology at Massachusetts General Hospital and a lecturer in genetics at Harvard Medical School, and was an entrepreneur-in-residence at Morgenthaler Ventures.
“I am proud to be able to chair Inozyme’s impressive board. I have spent my entire career in industry advancing novel products for the treatment of rare diseases, and I am excited to join Inozyme as it prepares for and enters its next critical phase,” said Dr. Treco.
Lynne Sullivan currently is a board member of Solid Biosciences, ResTORbio, and BiomX, each of which are publicly traded biotechnology companies. She was most recently chief financial officer of Compass Therapeutics and was previously a senior vice president of finance at Biogen, where she spent 11 years, with global responsibility for Corporate Finance, Financial Planning and Analysis and Corporate Tax. She served as the co-chair of the Finance and Tax Committee of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) from 2007 through 2018 and was a Certified Public Accountant licensed in Massachusetts from 1991 through June 2018.
“Lynne’s experience with life science companies of various sizes and stages, and her financial expertise, will be extremely valuable as our company grows, adds more infrastructure, and becomes more complex,” commented Axel Bolte. “She has demonstrated a long track record of integrity and leadership with both established and emerging companies. We are fortunate to have someone with her broad experience to serve on the board of our Company.”
About Inozyme Pharma
Inozyme Pharma is a rare disease biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics for the treatment of diseases of abnormal mineralization. Through our in-depth understanding of the biological pathways involved in mineralization, we are pursuing the development of potentially first-in-class therapeutics to address the underlying causes of these debilitating diseases. It is well established that two genes, ENPP1 and ABCC6, play key roles in a critical mineralization pathway and that defects in these genes lead to abnormal mineralization. We are initially focused on developing a novel therapy to treat the rare genetic diseases of ENPP1 and ABCC6 deficiencies.
Inozyme Pharma was founded in 2017 by Joseph Schlessinger, Ph.D., Demetrios Braddock, M.D., Ph.D., and Axel Bolte, MSc, MBA, with technology developed by Dr. Braddock and licensed from Yale University. For more information, please visit www.inozyme.com.
