Rheos Medicines Appoints Katerina Leftheris, Ph.D., Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery and Nabil Uddin, Doctor of Pharmacy, Vice President of Strategy and Business Development
Company Expands Leadership Team with Experienced Industry Leaders as it Advances Pipeline of Precision Drugs for Autoimmune Diseases
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Rheos Medicines, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company providing molecular targeting and precision therapy for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, today announced the appointment of Katerina Leftheris, Ph.D. Senior President of Drug Discovery, and Nabil Uddin, Pharm. D., as Vice President of Strategy and Business Development.
“We are excited to grow the Rheos leadership team with the addition of these two accomplished industry leaders, deepening our expertise in key areas of our science and business to support our future growth,” said Barbara Fox, Ph.D., Managing Director. Officer of Rheos. “Katerina brings extensive experience in small molecule drug discovery and a successful track record in advancing drug candidates to the clinic in a range of therapeutic areas. Nabil’s diverse expertise in strategy, operations and business development in the biopharmaceutical industry and his proven skills in developing strategies in new market areas will be invaluable as Rheos evolves our pipeline opportunities.
Katerina Leftheris, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery
“I look forward to applying my experience to help advance Rheos’ pipeline to develop precision drugs for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases,” said Dr. Leftheris. “I see enormous potential for the company’s pioneering approach to targeting the fundamental metabolic underpinnings of immune system dysfunction while identifying molecular signatures for patient subsets. It is exciting to be part of a new drug development paradigm at Rheos to address the heterogeneity of immune-mediated diseases and address the vast unmet patient needs.
Katerina Leftheris, Ph.D., brings over 20 years of experience in small molecule drug discovery and development, including multiple phase 1, 2, and 3 drug actives targeting immune modulation, fibrosis, l oncology and immuno-oncological indications. Throughout her career, she has led teams that have advanced more than 15 small molecule drug compounds into clinical development spanning numerous molecular targets. Most recently, she was Vice President of Chemistry at Pliant Therapeutics, a biotechnology company specializing in novel treatments for fibrotic diseases. Katerina helped build Pliant’s drug discovery capabilities, which led to two drugs in the clinic (one in partnership with Novartis) for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), primary sclerosing cholangitis ( PSC) and NASH with a third compound focused on immuno-oncology in early development. Previously, Katerina was Senior Director of Discovery for Celgene, San Diego, where she built and led teams to advance five new clinical candidates in immunology and oncology. Earlier in her career, she held R&D positions at Vitae Pharmaceuticals and in the Discovery Oncology and Immunology Chemistry group at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Katerina was elected to the National Board of the American Chemical Society and has authored over 135 publications and issued patents. She earned a BS in Chemistry/Biochemistry from Smith College, a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California, San Diego and completed postdoctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
Nabil Uddin, Pharm.D., Vice President, Strategy and Business Development
“It’s an exciting time to join Rheos as the company advances its precision medicine approach for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, moves its first drug candidate to the clinic, and evolves its pipeline,” said Dr. Uddin. “I look forward to using my experience to support the growth of the business, and I look forward to working with the talented team at Rheos to achieve our shared goals and our mission to make a difference in the lives of patients in many diseases.”
Nabil Uddin, Pharm.D., joins Rheos with over 15 years of experience in strategic and operational roles, including program and alliance management, portfolio planning, corporate strategy and business development . Most recently, he served as Vice President of Corporate Development at Concert Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for corporate strategy, business development, program management and business planning. Nabil joined Concert to provide strategic and operational leadership for a CF program that was eventually acquired by Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Before Concert, Nabil worked at Seaside Therapeutics, a company specializing in neurodevelopmental disorders such as fragile X syndrome and autism spectrum disorders. Earlier in his career, he served as a consultant providing strategic planning and program management services. Nabil earned a B.Sc. in Biology from McMaster University, a Pharm.D. from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
About Rheos drugs
Rheos drugs is a biopharmaceutical company that develops precision medicines to treat autoimmune and inflammatory diseases by identifying and targeting molecular characteristics and patient subsets for these complex diseases. Use of our property MetPM™ Platform, the Rheos team integrates an unparalleled knowledge base of immunometabolism networks based on bioinformatics integration of genetic, transcriptomic, epigenomic and metabolomic datasets, including from patient data and samples. We built a pipeline novel differentiated drug programs to treat autoimmune and inflammatory diseases by targeting the fundamental underpinnings of immune system dysfunction while identifying molecular signatures for patient stratification and selection. Rheos has brought together leading scientists whose discoveries have opened up the field of immunometabolism, clinicians with a deep understanding of immune-mediated diseases, and a management team experienced in biotechnology. Rheos was founded by Third Rock Ventures and is located in Cambridge, MA. For more information, please visit www.rheosrx.com/. We invite you to follow us on LinkedIn and @Rheosrx.
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