ACELYRIN, INC. Adds Two Veteran C-suite Leaders

• Mardi C. Dier joins as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer
• Mina Kim joins as Chief Legal and Administrative Officer
• CFO Gil Labrucherie departs the company for personal family reasons

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ACELYRIN, INC., a late-stage clinical biopharma company focused on accelerating the development and delivery of transformative medicines in immunology, today announced two executive appointments that will strengthen leadership of key corporate functions as the company enters its next stage of growth: Mardi C. Dier joins as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer while Mina Kim joins as Chief Legal and Administrative Officer. Both Ms. Dier and Ms. Kim will report directly to ACELYRIN CEO Shao-Lee Lin, MD, PhD. Ms. Dier replaces current CFO Gil Labrucherie, who is stepping down for personal family reasons after a short but successful tenure with the company. 

"It is exciting to reflect on our tremendous growth since founding ACELYRIN two years ago, and such a pleasure to be able to welcome two industry veterans of Mardi's and Mina's caliber as we continue to build a world-class biopharma company," noted Dr. Lin. "I also want to thank Gil for his important contributions as our CFO, particularly with the success of our recent $300 million Series C financing. Even in the face of difficult family circumstances, he has been a continuous source of positivity. We wish all the best for his family and will always consider him a member of the ACELYRIN team."

Ms. Dier joins ACELYRIN from Ultragenyx, Inc., where she most recently served as Executive Vice President and CFO. At Ultragenyx, Ms. Dier was one of seven team members responsible for all major and strategic decisions and led the Corporate Strategy, Investor Relations and Global Corporate Communications, Accounting, FP&A and IT organizations. Prior to that, Ms. Dier was CFO and Chief Business Officer at Portola Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Alexion), where she successfully led completion of the company's initial public offering and raised nearly $2 billion in capital across multiple transactions before orchestrating the sale to Alexion. Prior to her successful tenure at Portola, she served as Vice President of Investor Relations at Chiron Corporation until its acquisition by Novartis, and earlier in her career worked as an investment banker at Prudential Securities covering the biopharma sector. Ms. Dier serves on the Board of Directors of ORIC Pharmaceuticals, Prelude Therapeutics and Synthekine, Inc.

She holds a BS in Biology from Stanford University and an MBA from the Anderson School at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"ACELYRIN is moving quickly with tremendous momentum as evidenced by the in-licensing and late-stage clinical success of izokibep, ability to raise more than $550 million in capital from a blue-chip syndicate of investors and recruitment of a word-class team," said Ms. Dier. "I am thrilled to be joining at this important time to build the strongest possible finance function and lead efforts to further expand the portfolio in order to bring innovation to immunology and deliver new medicines to patients in need."

Ms. Kim joins ACELYRIN from Zymergen, Inc., where she most recently served as Chief Legal Officer and Head of Corporate Development. At Zymergen, Ms. Kim built the legal team including corporate & SEC reporting, intellectual property, litigation and employment, compliance, regulatory, public policy and sustainability. She also led the company's corporate strategy and business development teams as well as the 2021 IPO process and later sale to Ginkgo Bioworks. Ms. Kim previously served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy and General Counsel at Atara Biotherapeutics, and General Counsel at Sunrun. Earlier in her career she was Vice President, Legal at BBAM, LLC, Assistant General Counsel at William-Sonoma and an Associate at the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell.

She holds a BA in history from Dartmouth College and a JD from Harvard Law School.

"I have tremendous respect for Shao-Lee, and I am excited to be joining ACELYRIN alongside a team of unmatched professionals who have in the past brought to patients some of the greatest innovations in immunology," said Ms. Kim. "With izokibep now enrolling multiple phase 3 trials, continuous efforts in business development activities and a growing footprint in both the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas, I look forward to contributing to the company's future growth in accelerating the development and delivery of transformative medicines."

Mr. Labrucherie said, "while I am sad to be leaving the company so shortly after joining, I remain very confident in the future success of ACELYRIN under Shao-Lee's leadership, and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work with such talented and caring colleagues. The past few months – notably leading the successful $300 million Series C – will be a highlight of my career, and I will be cheering for ACELYRIN's continued success not only for the team but also for the patients they strive to serve."

ACELYRIN, INC. is a Los Angeles area-based biopharma company – with additional operations in the San Francisco Bay area – focused on providing patients life-changing new treatment options by identifying, acquiring, and accelerating development and commercialization of promising drug candidates and leveraging its expertise to rapidly advance these medicines to patients. Under an exclusive licensing arrangement with Affibody AB, ACELYRIN holds global development and commercialization rights to izokibep, including in the United States, European Union, and Japan (excluding select Asian countries). For more information, please visit www.acelyrin.com

This press release may contain forward-looking statements. While ACELYRIN, INC. considers any projections to be based on reasonable assumptions, these forward-looking statements may be called into question by numerous hazards and uncertainties, so that actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements.

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