Vividion Therapeutics Expands Leadership Team with the Appointments of Fred Aslan, M.D., President and Chief Business Officer, and Larry Burgess, Ph.D., Head of Chemistry

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Vividion Therapeutics, a biotechnology company applying revolutionary proteomics and chemistry platforms to discover and develop novel small molecule therapeutics, today announced the appointments of Fred Aslan, M.D. as President and Chief Business Officer and Larry Burgess, Ph.D. as Head of Chemistry.

"We are delighted to expand the Vividion family with these two high caliber individuals. Vividion's rapid generation of potent and selective small molecule leads against undruggable targets presents a vast opportunity that requires a skilled team to effectively deploy," said Diego Miralles, Chief Executive Officer.

Dr. Aslan most recently was the founder and CEO of Adavium Medical, which he built into a leading Brazilian medical device company, raising over US$50 million from institutional investors. Prior to Adavium Medical, he was a full-time investor at Venrock, a leading venture capital firm he joined in 2006, where he was involved with several successful biotech and medical device companies. Dr. Aslan was a co-founder and board member of Receptos Pharmaceuticals, a NASDAQ-listed biotech company, which was subsequently acquired by Celgene for more than $7 billion. He also led Venrock's investment in Zeltiq, a NASDAQ-listed medical device company that was acquired by Allergan for more than $2 billion. Prior to Venrock, he was Director of Business Development and led Investor Relations at CuraGen, a NASDAQ-listed oncology-focused biotech company, and was a strategy consultant with Boston Consulting Group (BCG). He received a B.S. in Biology from Duke University, an M.D. from Yale and an M.B.A. from Harvard.

"We are delighted to have Fred join our company. Throughout his career he has gained significant experience in strategic financing and operational excellence," stated Miralles. "Fred's talents enhance our ability to execute and finance the large number of program opportunities created by Vividion's unique platform." 

"I am excited to work with such a talented group of leaders, scientists, founders and investors," stated Fred Aslan. "I look forward to using my experience-set to help Vividion unleash the full potential of its platform as we advance novel, impactful therapies to the clinic."

Dr. Burgess brings extensive scientific leadership and drug development experience to Vividion. He previously served as the Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry for Array BioPharma, where he helped to advance many discovery programs that resulted in Investigational New Drug (IND) applications. The majority of those drugs are currently being tested in patients or are approved. Prior to joining Array BioPharma, he was at Amgen and Pfizer. Dr. Burgess received a B.S. in chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a Ph.D. from the University of Texas and completed his postdoctoral research at Colorado State University.

"Throughout his career Larry has demonstrated the exceptional scientific leadership and execution skills that are needed to maximize the enormous potential of our platforms," said Miralles. "We believe we can transform the way in which small molecules are discovered and can build clinical programs against targets that until now have remained undruggable; he will be instrumental in helping us make that vision a reality." 

"I'm excited to join the Vividion family and help guide discovery and early development efforts. These novel chemistry and proteomic technologies have enormous potential to deliver high value clinical candidates," said Dr. Burgess.

About Vividion Therapeutics

Vividion Therapeutics, Inc. is a biotechnology company focused on developing innovative therapeutics that treat major unmet clinical needs using the first platform for proteome-wide ligand and target discovery. The company's cutting-edge platform was spun out of the labs of Vividion's scientific founders, a team of experts in chemical biology and synthetic chemistry from The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA. Vividion is committed to advancing and applying its pioneering synthetic and proteomic chemistry platforms to create therapeutics that will make a transformative difference in patients. For more information, please visit www.vividion.com.

Media Contact:

Julie Rathbun
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(858) 257-1535

SOURCE Vividion Therapeutics

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