LogicBio Therapeutics names Daphne Karydas and Jeff Goater to Board of Directors

LEXINGTON, Mass., Dec. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- LogicBio Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: LOGC), a clinical stage genetic medicines company developing therapies based on advanced gene editing technology and next-generation synthetic capsids, today announced that Daphne Karydas and Jeff Goater have been appointed to the Company's board of directors. 

"We are excited to welcome Daphne and Jeff. They both bring an impressive depth of experience and proven leadership in the areas of corporate finance, global strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions and strategic partnerships in the biopharma sector," said Frederic Chereau, LogicBio president and CEO.  "As we plan for many major developments at LogicBio including initiation of our phase 1/2 SUNRISE clinical trial for LB-001, we believe their expertise will play a central role in guiding our corporate strategic planning and help us reach new levels of momentum in all operational areas."

Ms. Karydas is chief financial officer at Syndax Pharmaceuticals, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing an innovative pipeline of cancer therapies.  Previously, she served as senior vice president of corporate financial planning & analysis and strategy at Allergan plc, where she oversaw financial and business strategy through the company's acquisition by Abbvie in May 2020.  Prior to joining Allergan, Ms. Karydas spent over 17 years in asset management and investment banking focused on the bio-pharmaceutical sector.  She served as a senior healthcare analyst at J.P. Morgan Asset Management and a portfolio manager and senior healthcare analyst at The Boston Company Asset Management and was a vice president at Goldman Sachs Asset Management and a member of Goldman Sachs' healthcare investment banking team.  She began her career as a project chemical engineer at Merck & Co. and earned a B.S. and M.S. in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Mr. Goater is chief executive officer at Surface Oncology, an immuno-oncology company developing next-generation antibody therapies.  Previously he was chief financial officer of Voyager Therapeutics, helping to guide the company through an initial public offering and establishment of a strategic partnership with Sanofi Genzyme.  For almost ten years he was an investment banker, most recently at Evercore Partners where he was an advisor on more than $100 billion in strategic transactions in the biopharma industry.  He began his career as a research scientist and earned master's degrees in microbiology/immunology, pathology and business administration from the University of Rochester.

"I am especially excited to be joining the LogicBio board of directors as the Company plans for a range of promising product development milestones and business opportunities based on the potential of the platform," said Ms. Karydas.  "I look forward to working with the team to expand the Company's progress and target new opportunities in the rapidly emerging gene editing space."

"In recent years, LogicBio has made significant progress both in advancing its pipeline and in positioning the Company for many promising opportunities in research and business development," said Mr. Goater, adding, "I look forward to joining with the other members of the board in helping the Company achieve its mission of bringing innovative therapies to patients with rare diseases around the world."

"As we welcome Daphne and Jeff to our board, we also are very grateful to Erez Chimovits and Daniel O'Connell, who are stepping down from our board, for their service during several formative and active years for our Company," Mr. Chereau added.

About LogicBio Therapeutics

LogicBio Therapeutics is dedicated to extending the reach of genetic medicine with pioneering platforms. LogicBio's proprietary genome editing technology platform, GeneRide, enables the site-specific integration of a therapeutic transgene without nucleases or exogenous promoters by harnessing the native process of homologous recombination. LogicBio has received FDA clearance for the first-in-human clinical trial of LB-001, a wholly owned genome editing program leveraging GeneRide for the treatment of methylmalonic acidemia. Patient enrollment in the phase 1/2 SUNRISE clinical trial is expected to begin in early 2021. In addition, LogicBio has a collaboration with Takeda to research and develop LB-301, an investigational therapy leveraging GeneRide for the treatment of the rare pediatric disease Crigler-Najjar syndrome.

LogicBio is also developing a Next Generation Capsid platform for use in gene editing and gene therapies. Data presented have shown that the capsids deliver highly efficient functional transduction of human hepatocytes with improved manufacturability with low levels of pre-existing neutralizing antibodies in human samples. Top-tier capsid candidates from this effort have demonstrated significant improvements over benchmark AAVs currently in clinical development. LogicBio is developing these highly potent vectors for internal development candidates and potentially for business development collaborations.

Forward Looking Statements  

This press release contains "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These are not statements of historical facts and are based on management's beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available. They are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results and the implementation of the Company's plans to vary materially, including the risks associated with the initiation, cost, timing, progress and results of the Company's current and future research and development activities and preclinical studies and potential future clinical trials. These risks are discussed in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including, without limitation, the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on March 16, 2020, the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed on May 11, 2020, and the Company's subsequent filings with the SEC. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, even if new information becomes available in the future. 

Media contact:
Jenna Urban
Berry & Company Public Relations
[email protected] 
212 253 8881

SOURCE LogicBio Therapeutics, Inc.