Catamaran Bio Announces Appointment of Michael DeRidder, PhD, as Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy and New Product Planning

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Catamaran Bio, Inc., a biotechnology company developing off‑the-shelf chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-NK cell therapies to treat cancer, today announced the appointment of Michael DeRidder, PhD, as Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy and New Product Planning. Dr. DeRidder brings extensive experience leading product planning and portfolio strategy in the cell therapy and immuno-oncology areas, most recently as Vice President, Medicine Commercialization Leader for Cell and Gene Therapies at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

“We are excited to welcome Mike to our leadership team. His proven track record of applying strategic and commercial insights to the development of cell therapies will be invaluable as we continue to build Catamaran’s CAR-NK cell therapy product pipeline,” said Alvin Shih, MD, Chief Executive Officer of Catamaran Bio.

“I look forward to guiding the company’s portfolio strategy and integrating commercial considerations into our broader product development approach,” said Dr. DeRidder. “This is an extremely exciting time to join Catamaran, as we advance two allogeneic CAR-NK cell therapies to the clinic with the potential to effectively treat solid tumors.”

In Dr. DeRidder’s previous role at GSK, he was responsible for planning the global launch strategy for letetresgene autoleucel (lete-cel), an engineered T cell therapy currently in pivotal clinical development. He also played a leadership role in the operational design and implementation of GSK’s cell therapy capabilities and the cell therapy portfolio strategy. In addition, he played a leading role in the company’s $5 billion acquisition of Tesaro in 2019 and the in-licensing of the NY-ESO-1 TCR program from Adaptimmune. Prior to this, he held positions of increasing responsibility at GSK in New Product Planning and Business Development across a range of disease areas. Dr. DeRidder holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a BSE in Bioengineering from Tulane University.

About Catamaran Bio

Catamaran Bio is developing novel, off-the-shelf chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-NK cell therapies designed to treat a broad range of cancers, including solid tumors. Our proprietary capabilities enable us to harness the natural cancer-fighting properties of NK cells and enhance and tailor their effectiveness with the power of synthetic biology and innovative non-viral cell engineering. We are using our TAILWIND™ platform, an integrated suite of technologies, to specifically address the end-to-end methods of engineering, processing and manufacturing NK cells and rapidly advance our pipeline of CAR-NK cell therapy programs. Our team combines experienced biopharmaceutical leadership with founding scientists who are pioneers in NK cell biology, engineering, manufacturing and clinical application. Catamaran is backed by leading financial and corporate investors, including SV Health Investors, Sofinnova Partners, Lightstone Ventures, Takeda Ventures, Astellas Venture Management, and the UMN Discovery Capital investment program. For more information, please visit www.catamaranbio.com and follow us on LinkedIn and @CatamaranBio on Twitter.