Ribometrix Further Expands Leadership with Appointment of Barclay “Buck” Phillips as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer

DURHAM, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ribometrix, a biotechnology company developing small molecule therapeutics that directly target RNA to treat human diseases, announced today the appointment of Barclay “Buck” Phillips as chief operating officer and chief financial officer. Mr. Phillips brings more than 25 years of experience in life sciences and venture capital to Ribometrix. Over that period he has served as chief financial officer of three separate NASDAQ-listed biotechnology companies, as a managing director of a biotech focused venture capital fund and as a biotech analyst at a major public mutual fund complex. In addition, Mr. Phillips has served on the board of directors of more than a dozen public or private life sciences companies.

“Buck has an exceptional track record for growing biotechnology companies through all stages of development, and joins Ribometrix at an important time for our team and technology,” said Michael Solomon, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Ribometrix. “With a major collaboration, advancing pipeline and a refined RNA therapeutics discovery platform, we are ready for a new stage of growth, which his expertise will help shape for our long-term success.”

In his most recent role, Mr. Phillips served as chief financial officer and senior vice president of corporate development at G1 Therapeutics, a NASDAQ-listed biotechnology company focused on small molecule therapies for patients with cancer. At G1 Therapeutics, he was responsible for finance and accounting functions, financing strategy (successfully raising over $340 million), Wall Street and investor relations, public relations and corporate strategy and corporate development.

“Ribometrix presents a compelling opportunity built on the winning combination of a proprietary platform technology with the promise of addressing disease via small-molecule targeting of RNA, a passionate and experienced drug development team and the financial backing of multiple blue-chip biotech focused venture capitalists and pharmaceutical companies,” said Buck Phillips. “I look forward to joining the Ribometrix team and playing a role in guiding this exciting opportunity for medical innovation.”

Prior to G1 Therapeutics, Mr. Phillips served as senior vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer of Novavax, a NASDAQ-listed biotechnology company using a proprietary recombinant nanoparticle technology to deliver a new class of vaccines. While at Novavax, Mr. Phillips led financial operations and was part of the executive team responsible for a corporate strategy that resulted in operating growth from $50 million to more than $270 million per year, and successfully raised more than $850 million across multiple financings.

Prior to Novavax, Mr. Phillips was senior vice president and chief financial officer at Micromet, a NASDAQ-listed biotechnology company developing next-generation antibody technology for the potential treatment of cancer, infectious disease and autoimmune diseases that was acquired by Amgen in 2012 for $1.2 billion. In this role, he successfully raised more than $250 million in multiple financings to support high-priority development programs.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Phillips served as managing director at Vector Fund Management, a venture capital firm, and as a biotechnology analyst and director of Venture Investments at INVESCO Funds Group, which had more than $30 billion in assets under management (AUM), including four life sciences sector funds with $3.5 billion in AUM. Mr. Phillips holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

About Ribometrix

Ribometrix, headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, is a biotechnology company leveraging world-leading expertise in three-dimensional structural analysis of RNA as the foundation of its proprietary drug discovery platform. This platform enables the identification of novel small molecules that modulate the function of RNA and proteins associated with human disease. Ribometrix’ value creation strategy is built around developing an internal pipeline of drug candidates and partnerships with the leading biopharmaceutical companies. Ribometrix is backed by a syndicate of blue-chip venture investors. For more information, visit https://www.ribometrix.com.