Moderna Therapeutics Appoints Theo Melas-Kyriazi to Board of Directors

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Moderna Therapeutics, the pioneer in developing messenger RNA (mRNA) Therapeutics™, a revolutionary new treatment modality to enable the in vivo production of therapeutic proteins, announced today that Theo Melas-Kyriazi, CFO of Levitronix Technologies LLC and a director of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International (NYSE: VRX and TSX: VRX) has joined Moderna's board of directors.

Melas-Kyriazi brings extensive financial and executive leadership experience to Moderna, having previously served as CFO and vice president of corporate strategy for Thermo Electron Corporation (now Thermo Fisher Scientific). He also has experience as CEO of Thermo Spectra Corporation, a former subsidiary of Thermo Electron, and as a board member and investor in several early stage health sciences companies. Melas-Kyriazi joins Moderna's board as the company embarks on the next phase of its growth strategy focused on clinical development and building the world's leading mRNA platform.  

"I am thrilled that Theo is joining the Moderna board of directors. He brings important expertise and skill to the company as we scale up to build the leader in mRNA therapeutics," said Stephane Bancel, president and founding CEO of Moderna. "With his experience as CFO of Thermo Electron, a large, public life sciences company, and as a director of Valeant for the last ten years, during a period of extraordinary growth, he will be a tremendous asset to help guide Moderna's future growth."

"I am truly excited to be joining the board of Moderna, a company with tremendous potential to transform drug development," said Melas-Kyriazi. "Moderna's novel platform and ambitious vision stands out among early biotechnology leaders, and I look forward to helping the company deliver on its mission to improve the lives of patients across a broad range of diseases."

About Moderna Therapeutics

Moderna is pioneering messenger RNA Therapeutics™, an entirely new in vivo drug modality that produces human proteins or antibodies inside patient cells, which are in turn active intracellularly or secreted. This breakthrough platform addresses currently undruggable targets and offers a superior alternative to existing drug modalities for a wide range of disease conditions. Moderna has developed a broad intellectual property estate, including more than 200 patent applications with more than 10,000 claims ranging from novel nucleotide chemistries to specific drug compositions. The company plans to develop and commercialize its innovative mRNA drugs—initially for rare diseases and oncology—while partnering drug candidates in other therapeutic areas in order to rapidly deliver this innovation to patients. Moderna is a privately held company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Visit www.modernatx.com to learn more.

For information contact:
Maria Favorito
617-761-6720
[email protected]

SOURCE Moderna Therapeutics