Blade Therapeutics Announces Appointment of Jean-Frédéric Viret as Chief Financial Officer

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Blade Therapeutics, Inc. (Blade or the Company), a biopharmaceutical company committed to revolutionizing the treatment of fibrotic diseases, today announced the appointment of Jean-Frédéric Viret, Ph.D., as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) effective immediately. In his role, Dr. Viret will lead Blade’s finance and accounting functions, as well as investor relations and corporate communications.

“Jean’s broad corporate finance experience and track record of building substantial value for companies will be critical as Blade continues to advance its pipeline of innovative therapies,” said Wendye Robbins, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Blade. “I am delighted to welcome Jean to our team.”

Dr. Viret has nearly two decades of corporate finance experience within the life sciences industry, most recently serving as CFO with Coherus BioSciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHRS), a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company that he joined in 2014. He has previous experience in CFO roles during tenures at several public and privately held biopharmaceutical and diagnostics companies. In addition to a Ph.D. in Plant Molecular Biology from Université Louis Pasteur (Strasbourg), Dr. Viret has a B.S. in Engineering from the Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine and an M.B.A. from Cornell University. He was a visiting fellow at Harvard University and a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“I am excited to join the team at Blade and work with them to bring forward innovative therapies with the potential to transform positively the lives of patients who suffer from fibrotic and neurodegenerative diseases,” said Dr. Viret.

About Blade Therapeutics

Blade Therapeutics is a private biopharmaceutical company founded on a commitment to revolutionize the treatment of debilitating, incurable fibrotic diseases that impact millions of people worldwide. The Company is an expert in novel biological pathways – including autotaxin / lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) and calpain biology – that are foundational to cell and tissue damage responses leading to fibrosis. Blade is advancing a robust pipeline of potential first-in-class investigational therapies for diseases of lung, liver and heart fibrosis, as well as neurodegenerative diseases. This includes multiple small-molecule direct inhibitors of autotaxin / LPA and dimeric calpains that offer distinct but complementary anti-fibrotic mechanisms.

Since its founding in 2015, Blade has raised approximately $90 million, including investments from Deerfield Management, MPM Capital, Pfizer Ventures, One Ventures, Osage University Partners, Bay City Capital and pharma strategic investments from Bristol-Myers Squibb and Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research. The Company has assembled critical leadership expertise supplemented by a world-class network of scientific, pharmaceutical and clinical advisors to enable efficient and successful drug development. Visit www.blademed.com for more information and follow us on LinkedIn.

About Fibrosis

Fibrosis is a complex, pathologic process involving the development of fibrous connective tissue (scarring) within various organs. The process of fibrosis is triggered by an injury that damages cells or tissues in the epithelium. Once present, normal cellular function is impeded. Later-stage fibrotic disease is marked by poor outcomes and high morbidity and mortality. Diseases characterized by uncontrolled, progressive fibrosis include idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and interstitial lung disease (ILD). New safe, well-tolerated therapies that provide robust attenuation of disease progression are needed to address the high burden of fibrotic diseases, as well as neurodegenerative disease.