SmartPharm Therapeutics Appoints José Trevejo, MD, PhD, as Chief Executive Officer

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 25, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- SmartPharm Therapeutics, a preclinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on developing next-generation, non-viral gene therapies for the treatment of rare diseases, today announced that José Trevejo, MD, PhD, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Trevejo is a co-founder of SmartPharm and has served as a member of the Board of Directors since the Company commenced operations in March 2018.

Steve Gorlin, Chairman of the Board for SmartPharm, commented, "José brings nearly two decades of medical and business leadership in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical field, with a proven track record of developing important life science products for high unmet medical needs. He has long history of success in advancing programs, building teams, and forming strategic alliances. We believe he will play a pivotal role in the successful growth of SmartPharm and will accelerate SmartPharm's advancement into clinical development with the goal of developing life-saving treatments for serious and rare diseases."

"SmartPharm is an exciting, non-viral gene therapy company, with a platform technology that has broad potential applicability, initially in the area of enzyme replacement therapy for rare disease, and then later in other areas such as tissue restoration and cancer biologics," said Dr. Trevejo. "We have an innovative and proprietary gene therapy platform, and a terrific team of highly collaborative and motivated people. I look forward to leading the Company as we rapidly advance our novel pipeline of non-viral gene-encoded protein therapies that address important diseases."

Before joining SmartPharm as CEO, Dr. Trevejo served as Vice President, Clinical Development at Cyclerion Therapeutics, which spun out of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, where he helped advance a diverse clinical pipeline in rare diseases like sickle cell anemia. Dr. Trevejo joined Ironwood from Visterra, where he was a member of the Executive Team and oversaw pre-clinical and clinical development including operations, and regulatory science. Prior to Visterra, he held clinical development leadership positions at Genentech and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Before entering the biotechnology industry, Dr. Trevejo served as Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and was Principal Biomedical Scientist at the Draper Laboratory. He began his medical career as a Clinical Fellow in Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and then as a Clinical Fellow in Infectious Disease at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Dr. Trevejo earned both an MD in Medicine and a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Weil Cornell Medical and Graduate School.

About SmartPharm Therapeutics

SmartPharm Therapeutics Inc. is a privately-held, development-stage pharmaceutical company focused on developing next-generation, non-viral gene therapies for the treatment of serious or rare diseases with the vision of "Biologics from Within." The Company is currently developing a novel pipeline of non-viral, gene-encoded proteins for the treatment of conditions that require enzyme replacement therapy and tissue restoration. SmartPharm commenced operations in 2018 and is headquartered in Cambridge, MA, USA. For more information, please visit www.smartpharmtx.com.

SOURCE SmartPharm Therapeutics