aTyr Pharma Appoints Biotech Industry Veteran Kathryn Falberg to the Board of Directors and as Audit Committee Chair

SAN DIEGO, June 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- aTyr Pharma, Inc. ("aTyr"), an innovative rare disease biotherapeutics enterprise, announced today the appointment of Kathryn (Kate) Falberg to aTyr's board of directors and as its Audit Committee Chair.   With a distinguished career in biotechnology, Ms. Falberg brings a strong business, strategic planning and financial background to the aTyr team. 

"We are very pleased to welcome Kate to our board of directors.  Her highly accomplished background in our industry will be extremely valuable for our maturing organization," said John Mendlein, Ph.D., CEO and executive chairman of aTyr. "We believe that Kate's experience, input and advice will help us to advance aTyr as we prepare for future funding events, as well as product development and commercialization.  We very much look forward to her contributions." 

"As aTyr further develops Physiocrines in the clinic and brings forward opportunities for patients, it is a wonderful time to join the team," said Ms. Falberg. "The opportunity to bring to the market meaningful medicines that treat grave diseases is tremendously exciting.  I look forward to helping aTyr push forward in achieving its objectives."

Ms. Falberg most recently served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Jazz Pharmaceuticals PLC from 2009 to 2014, during which time the market capitalization of Jazz increased from approximately $200 million to approximately $9 billion.  From 1995 to 2001, Ms. Falberg was with Amgen Inc., where she served as Senior Vice President, Finance and Strategy, Chief Financial Officer, and before that as Vice President, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer, and Vice President, Treasurer.  During this time, Amgen's sales grew from approximately $1.6 billion to approximately $4 billion and its market capitalization increased from approximately $8 billion to approximately $75 billion.  Ms. Falberg currently serves on the board of directors and is the Audit Committee Chair at Ariosa Diagnostics, a medical diagnostics company; at Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company; and at Medivation, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company.

About Physiocrines
Among their various homeostatic functions, some Physiocrines act as extracellular signaling molecules to orchestrate immuno-homeostasis in response to stress and other physiological changes. Physiocrines comprise naturally occurring proteins derived from tRNA synthetases that play fundamental roles in the function of human physiology and restoring pathophysiological states to a healthier state. aTyr is currently focused on Physiocrines that act as endogenous modulators of our immune system. Physiocrines offer the opportunity for modulating biological pathways through newly discovered naturally occurring mechanisms, many of which may provide multiple therapeutic advantages, including improved efficacy and reduced side effect profiles compared to many existing therapeutics.

About aTyr Pharma
aTyr Pharma is developing  a pipeline of therapeutic products based on Physiocrine biology. To protect these products aTyr has built an extensive intellectual property estate comprising over 200 patent applications and patents. aTyr's key programs are currently focused on rare disorders where the immune system is imbalanced. These diseases are serious potentially life threatening autoimmune conditions, for which there are currently no effective, safe, long term treatments. The privately held biotech was founded by The Scripps Research Institute Professor Paul Schimmel, a leading aminoacyl tRNA synthetase scientist, and is backed by top life sciences investors Alta Partners, Cardinal Partners, Domain Associates and Polaris Partners. For more information, please visit http://www.atyrpharma.com.

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SOURCE aTyr Pharma Inc.