STRM.BIO Appoints Vanessa Salazar as Vice President of Business Development

Industry veteran brings twenty years of experience in deal-making including in the field of gene therapy

BOSTON, June 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- STRM.BIO, a pre-clinical, VC-backed biotechnology company that is leveraging extracellular vesicles (EVs) to deliver gene therapies, and developing new therapeutics for rare blood diseases, announced today the appointment of Vanessa Salazar as Vice President of Business Development. Mrs. Salazar is a skilled corporate development executive with more than twenty years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry including time with Passage Bio, Spark Therapeutics, and GlaxoSmithKline. Her expertise spans strategic and operational aspects of business development, alliance management, medical affairs, and clinical development. Mrs. Salazar is joining a growing business development team and advisory board at STRM.BIO, which reflects the company's increased momentum in pursuing partnership opportunities. 

"We are very excited to welcome Vanessa to our leadership team at an important time in the growth of our company to bring gene therapy to life," said Jonathan Thon, CEO and Founder of STRM.BIO. "Vanessa brings an exceptional track record of success in business development and value creation to STRM.BIO as we define and execute on our partnering strategy to deliver the next generations of cell and gene therapies. She will be instrumental in ongoing discussions with potential partners as well as exploring new opportunities." 

"The potential of STRM's platform to finally make gene therapy accessible is transformative! I'm excited to join STRM.BIO and help accelerate the application of STRM's EV platform to break through the limitations of today's gene therapy programs," said Mrs. Salazar. "STRM.BIO has shown a differentiated ability to target hematopoietic stem cells in vivo, tunably load, and deliver multiplexed DNA, RNA, and protein cargo, and support repeat dosing—finally opening the door to in vivo gene delivery. I look forward to working closely with this outstanding team to drive new opportunities for expansion of our platform and advance our mission of democratizing gene therapy." 

Mrs. Salazar has been involved in corporate strategic planning and deal structuring for a variety of transactions including in- and out-licensing, divestitures, and co-development deals. She has led and transacted business deals with an aggregate value of over $2.5B, managed a portfolio of more than twenty alliances across a range of rare diseases, metabolic, oncology, and immunology indications and multiple modalities including small molecule, biologics, and gene therapy. Most recently, she was Executive Director of Corporate Development and Strategic Partnerships at Passage Bio. Prior to her time at Passage, she served as the Corporate Development Lead at Spark Therapeutics. She began her career in business development during a sixteen-year tenure at GlaxoSmithKline. She is a graduate of Rutgers University. 

Based in Boston, MA, STRM.BIO is a pre-clinical, VC-backed biotechnology company that is leveraging extracellular vesicles (EVs) to deliver gene therapy in a better way: simpler, safer, practical. Our work will open the door to the future of medicine for patients living with rare diseases worldwide. STRM.BIO is committed to bringing gene therapy to life. Please visit strm.bio to meet our growing team of partners and collaborators and stay up to date on our progress. 

SOURCE STRM.BIO