Zyngenia, Inc. Appoints Frank Hsu, M.D., as Chief Medical Officer

GAITHERSBURG, Md., May 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Zyngenia, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing Zybodies (next-generation multi-specific antibody-based drugs) in oncology and immunology, announced today that it has appointed Frank Hsu, M.D., as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and a member of its executive team. Dr. Hsu is a medical oncologist and immunologist with deep academic and industry clinical research experience who most recently served as Senior Medical Director at Genzyme. 

"Since our start in September 2009, we at Zyngenia have validated our technology platform, developed a suite of novel multi-specific biological drug candidates, and built a world-class drug discovery and development team," said Zyngenia President and CEO Peter A. Kiener, D.Phil. "As we move our lead programs into clinical testing, we are very fortunate to be able to bring on Dr. Hsu, an accomplished researcher and drug developer. Frank brings tremendous expertise to Zyngenia from his leadership role at Genzyme where he supervised clinical development activities of early- and late-stage products such as GC1008, Campath® and Thymoglobulin®, and helped lead the successful development and global drug registrations of Mozobil®. The recent additions of both Frank Hsu and David Parkinson, who will continue to serve as chairman of our clinical advisory board and as a member of our board of directors, have added industry-leading clinical and strategic depth to the Zyngenia leadership team."

"I am very pleased to join Zyngenia as the company moves drug candidates into clinical trials," said Dr. Hsu. "The company is at a very exciting stage as it is poised to demonstrate that targeting multiple disease pathways simultaneously with an antibody-like drug may have major impact on treating diseases where there are significant unmet medical needs. I believe that Zyngenia is ready to make very significant contributions to developing more effective therapies in oncology and autoimmune diseases."

About Frank Hsu, M.D.

Prior to joining Zyngenia, Dr. Hsu was Senior Medical Director at Genzyme in the Transplant and Oncology Division.  For over nine years, he was responsible for the clinical development of products in the areas of hematology, oncology and stem cell transplant.  In addition to his support of commercial products, he oversaw early clinical development of investigational agents including antibodies and vaccines and led the development of biomarker/early endpoint analyses and initial patient studies. He also actively provided medical support related to business development, strategic planning, partnership management, medical affairs, and corporate acquisitions.

Dr. Hsu received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University and his medical degree from Harvard Medical School as part of the Health, Science and Technology (Harvard-MIT) program.  His residency training in Internal Medicine was at the University of California, San Francisco.  He then spent six years as a clinical and research fellow in Oncology at Stanford University.  Dr. Hsu joined the faculty of Yale University in 1996 and served as an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Section of Oncology and as co-Director of the Immunology Research Program of the Yale Cancer Center until 2003.

During his academic career, Dr. Hsu's research focused on non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, Hodgkin's disease and multiple myeloma.  His work involved both basic immunology and translational efforts to develop novel anti-cancer antibodies and idiotype vaccines for the treatment of B cell non-Hodgkin's lymphomas and included the first clinical trial of an anti-cancer vaccine based on antigen-pulsed dendritic cells. He was a recipient of several awards including the James S. McDonnell Fellow Award for Molecular Medicine in Cancer Research and was a translational research fellow of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Dr. Hsu also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Grunebaum Cancer Research Foundation.

About Zyngenia, Inc.

Zyngenia, Inc. is a privately held biotherapeutics company focused on the development of next-generation multi-specific antibody-based therapeutics. The company uses proprietary patented technology to engineer single molecular entities that interact with two or more targets. The multiple target strategy has created many opportunities for innovative therapeutics with new mechanisms of action that are not achievable with single specificity antibodies. The company has initially focused its Zybody™ development on therapies for various cancers and autoimmune disorders. Zyngenia, whose lead investor is New Enterprise Associates, is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland. For more information, visit www.zyngenia.com.

* Campath®, Thymoglobulin®, and Mozobil® are registered trademarks of Genzyme Corporation.

SOURCE Zyngenia, Inc.