IFM Therapeutics, LLC Appoints John Leonard, M.D. to Board of Directors

BOSTON, Sept. 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- IFM Therapeutics, LLC (IFM), a privately held biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies that modulate novel targets in the innate immune system to treat inflammatory disorders and cancer, today announced the appointment of John Leonard, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Intellia Therapeutics, to its Board of Directors. Dr. Leonard brings more than 30 years of experience in biopharmaceutical research and development, drug discovery and strategy, and will serve as an independent director to both IFM and its recently established subsidiary, IFM Tre.

"John is an extraordinarily accomplished biopharmaceutical executive and we are thrilled to welcome him to our Board of Directors," said Gary D. Glick, Ph.D., co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of IFM. "His success advancing novel therapeutics through discovery, clinical development and commercial launch will be invaluable as we work to propel our product candidates toward the clinic, with the ultimate goal of helping patients who suffer from a wide range of serious inflammation-driven disorders." 

Dr. Leonard currently serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Intellia Therapeutics, a new publicly traded company focused on the development of therapies with the genome editing technology CRISPR/Cas9. Previously, he was Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President of R&D at AbbVie and, before that, he held various leadership roles at Abbott Pharmaceuticals, including Senior Vice President of Global Pharmaceutical R&D. At AbbVie and Abbott, Dr. Leonard oversaw the development of numerous novel therapeutics, and led the significant growth of the companies' R&D pipelines. Over the course of his career, he has worked extensively with monoclonal antibodies, HIV protease inhibitors and immunomodulatory therapies, and helped bring several blockbuster therapeutics to market, including Norvir®, Kaletra® and HUMIRA ®. Dr. Leonard's teams have twice been recognized with the Prix Galien Award for excellence in pharmaceutical research. Dr. Leonard received his M.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, followed by a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health.

"With its novel and exciting science, IFM has the potential to fundamentally alter the treatment landscape across a wide range of inflammatory diseases and cancer," said Dr. Leonard. "I am particularly eager to lend my expertise to the development of IFM Tre's NLRP3 antagonists, which could address the inappropriate inflammatory responses underlying multiple serious conditions, including inflammatory bowel disease, cardiovascular disease, fibrotic diseases such as NASH, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. I look forward to working with IFM's impressive team of scientists and industry leaders to translate the promise of regulating the innate immune system into medicines for patients."

About IFM Therapeutics, LLC

IFM Therapeutics, LLC (IFM) is a privately held biopharmaceutical company based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was founded by an international group of preeminent scientists and physicians who have spent decades understanding innate immunity and the role it plays in regulating the immune system. IFM's team has discovered and developed small molecules that modulate novel targets in the innate immune system as next-generation therapies for cancer, auto-immunity, and inflammatory disorders. IFM owns and operates IFM Tre, a subsidiary company launched in July of 2018 that is developing a suite of small-molecule antagonists targeting inappropriate inflammatory responses of the innate immune system via the NLRP3 pathway. For more information, please visit www.ifmthera.com.    

SOURCE IFM Therapeutics, LLC

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https://www.ifmthera.com