Sail Biomedicines Appoints Gene Marcantonio, M.D., Ph.D., as Chief Medical Officer

Appointment strengthens clinical leadership team as Sail advances its lead In Vivo eRNA™-TNP CAR-T program for autoimmune diseases toward the clinic

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sail Biomedicines, a Flagship Pioneering company, today announced the appointment of Dr. Gene Marcantonio as Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Marcantonio brings deep experience spanning translational medicine, early clinical development, immunology, and therapeutic strategy. Across leadership roles in biotech, large pharma, and academic medicine, he has guided multiple immunology-based programs from early development into the clinic, including oversight of successful Investigational New Drug (IND) applications, Phase 1 studies, and Phase 2 development across a range of therapeutic areas.

“Dr. Marcantonio brings clinical judgement, translational experience, and development leadership needed for the early clinical development for our in vivo CAR-T programs,” said John Mendlein, Ph.D., Executive Chairman and Co-founder of Sail Biomedicines and Executive Partner at Flagship Pioneering. “We believe our vanguard in vivo CAR-T product candidate has the potential to deliver the depth of B-cell depletion and immune reset needed for curative treatment approaches in autoimmune diseases.”

At Sail, Dr. Marcantonio will lead clinical strategy and development across the company’s pipeline, with an initial focus on advancing the vanguard in vivo eRNA-TNP CAR-T program for autoimmune diseases. His appointment reflects the company’s focus on the execution of the clinical development strategy.

“Autoimmune diseases continue to represent a major unmet medical need, and many people still cycle through chronic therapies without achieving durable control of their disease,” said Dr. Marcantonio. “What is compelling about Sail’s approach is the possibility of delivering a fundamentally different therapeutic effect, a potentially curative treatment built around deep B-cell depletion and immune reset that could have meaningful impact across multiple autoimmune diseases. I’m excited to help shape the development strategy for that opportunity.”

Before joining Sail, Dr. Marcantonio was Associate Vice President in Translational Pharmacology at Merck, where he led early-stage development efforts across infectious diseases, vaccines, and immunology and contributed to the development and approval of several therapeutics, including GRASTEK®, RAGWITEK®, NOXAFIL®, UBRELVY™, PREVYMIS®, ASMANEX® HFA, ZEPATIER™, ZINPLAVA™, and ENFLONSIA™. From Merck, Dr. Marcantonio served as CEO and Chief Medical Officer of ARMGO Pharma, now Rycarma Therapeutics, where he oversaw three INDs, a Phase 1b study at the NIH, a Phase 2 study in CPVT, and three Phase 1 studies. Earlier in his career, he was a tenured faculty member at Columbia University’s College of Physicians & Surgeons in the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology and an attending pathologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

About Sail Biomedicines

Sail Biomedicines is pioneering AI-driven design and deployment of fully programmable RNA medicines to transform patient care. Sail’s platform combines eRNA™ constructs, a first-in-class programmable circular RNA product form, and an industry-leading platform of targeted nanoparticles to unlock comprehensive programming of medicines for the first time. Using its cutting-edge eRNA and nanoparticle deployment platform, Sail is building a pipeline of In Vivo CAR-T based products. Sail was founded by Flagship Pioneering. For more, visit www.sail.bio and follow us on X (@SailBiomeds) and LinkedIn.