Business
Sana Biotechnology Announces the Appointment of Two Pioneers in Drug Discovery and Development to Lead its R&D Organization
Dr. Douglas E. Williams as Head of Research and Development Dr. Gary Meininger as Chief Medical Officer SEATTLE, April 10, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sana
About this update from Sana Biotechnology, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"Dr. Douglas E. Williams as Head of Research and Development Dr. Gary Meininger as Chief Medical Officer SEATTLE, April 10, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sana Biotechnology, Inc. (NASDAQ: SANA), a company focused on changing the possible for patients through engineered cells, today announced the appointments of two senior leaders to its research and development organization, Douglas E. Williams, Ph.D., as President of Research and Development, and Gary Meininger, M.D., as Chief Medical Officer. In a planned transition, Sunil Agarwal, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, will leave the company after helping onboard these new executives. Dr. Williams has over three decades of experience leading R&D organizations and companies, including at Biogen, ZymoGenetics, Seattle Genetics, Amgen, and Immunex, and most recently he was CEO of Codiak BioSciences. In his career, he has participated in the development of over a dozen approved medicines across multiple therapeutic areas, including multiple blockbusters. Dr. Meininger has over two decades of experience in drug development leadership, most recently at Vertex and previously at both Janssen and Merck. He is currently the industry representative to the FDA’s Endocrine and Metabolic Drug Advisory Committee. “We are thrilled to welcome Doug and Gary to Sana,” said Steve Harr, Sana’s President and CEO. “We are making rapid progress in transitioning from a research-based company to one focused on delivering innovative gene and cell-based medicines to patients across multiple disease areas. These accomplished and experienced leaders are recognized innovators in their respective areas of expertise, and together we believe they will strengthen our strategies, execution, and teams. Doug's long track record of transforming novel science into important medicines for patients will be useful across our portfolio, while Gary’s initial focus will be on our oncology pipeline with the recent IND allowance for SC291 and upcoming INDs for SC262 and SG299.” Dr. Harr added, “I would like to take this occasion to thank Dr. Sunil Agarwal for his work in building the development organization and ushering forward Sana’s pipeline, including the company’s first product candidate to IND clearance. Sunil has been a partner in defining the company strategy and hiring top talent into the company, and we wish him much success in ...