GAITHERSBURG, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Adaptive Phage Therapeutics, Inc. (“APT”), a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to providing therapies to treat infectious diseases, today announced the appointment of Evan Loh, M.D., CEO of Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRTK), Jonathan Leff, Partner at Deerfield Management, and Jana Jensen, Ph.D., Chief Operating Officer at Deerfield Discovery and Development, to the company’s Board of Directors.
“We are delighted to welcome Evan, Jonathan, and Jana to APT’s Board, as we expand our team following the successful completion of our $40.75 million Series B financing,” said Greg Merril, APT’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “Each of our new directors brings a wealth of experience to APT, which individually and collectively will benefit our company as we further progress our pipeline towards licensure.”
“I’m excited to be joining the Board of Adaptive Phage Therapeutics, especially given the company’s recent transition from preclinical to clinical development, its successful Series B fundraising, and the recently announced collaboration with Oyster Point Therapeutics to target ophthalmic diseases,” said Evan Loh, M.D., Director of APT. “APT has assembled an impressive team and I look forward to playing my part in helping guide the company’s future growth plans.”
Evan Loh, M.D., is a seasoned biotechnology executive who is currently Chief Executive Officer of Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRTK) and serves on the Executive Committee of the Antimicrobials Working Group. Previously, Dr. Loh was Senior Vice President, Development and Strategic Operations at Pfizer, and led global development strategy and clinical operations at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors at Adaptive Phage Therapeutics, Dr. Loh also serves on the Boards of Eiger Biopharmaceuticals and Windtree Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Loh received his A.B. from Harvard College and medical degree from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Loh completed his Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Jonathan Leff is a Partner at Deerfield Management, and Chairman of the Deerfield Institute. Mr. Leff focuses on venture capital and private investments in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. Prior to Deerfield, Mr. Leff was Managing Director at Warburg Pincus. He also previously served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of the National Venture Capital Association, leading the Association’s life sciences industry efforts. Additionally, Mr. Leff served on the Emerging Companies Section Board of the Biotechnology Industry Organization. Mr. Leff is a Board member of several not-for-profit organizations, including the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation, Friends of Cancer Research, the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the Food and Drug Administration and the Columbia University Medical Center Board of Advisors. Mr. Leff received his A.B. from Harvard University, his M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and his M.A. in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University.
Jana Jensen, Ph.D., currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Deerfield Discovery and Development. Previously, Dr. Jensen was Vice President and Head of Business Operations at Covance. Prior to Covance, Dr. Jensen spent 11 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb in various roles, the most recent being Head of Development Business Operations and R&D Collaboration. Dr. Jensen began her career with Merck as a chemist, followed by roles at Pfizer as a research scientist. Dr. Jensen received her Ph.D. from the University of Kansas, and an M.B.A. from Rutgers University.
Adaptive Phage Therapeutics, Inc.
Adaptive Phage Therapeutics (APT) is a clinical-stage company advancing therapies to treat multi-drug resistant infections. Prior antimicrobial therapeutic approaches have been “fixed,” while pathogens continue to evolve resistance to each of those therapeutics, causing those drug products to become rapidly less effective in commercial use as antimicrobial resistance (AMR) increases over time.
APT’s PhageBank™ approach leverages an ever-expanding library of bacteriophage (phage) that collectively provide evergreen broad spectrum and polymicrobial coverage. PhageBank™ phages are matched through a proprietary phage susceptibility assay that APT has teamed with Mayo Clinic Laboratories to commercialize on a global scale.
APT’s technology was originally developed by the biodefense program of U.S. Department of Defense. APT acquired the world-wide exclusive commercial rights in 2017. Under FDA emergency Investigational New Drug allowance, APT has provided investigational PhageBank™ therapy to treat more than 40 critically ill patients in which standard-of-care antibiotics had failed.
For more information, visit http://www.aphage.com.