PureTech Regulatory News (PRTC)

26 May 2020

PureTech Health plc

PureTech Founded Entity Vor Biopharma Appoints Nathan Jorgensen, PhD, as Chief Financial Officer

PureTech Health plc (LSE: PRTC) ("PureTech" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage biotherapeutics company dedicated to discovering, developing and commercializing highly differentiated medicines for devastating diseases, today announced that its Founded Entity Vor Biopharma has appointed Nathan Jorgensen, PhD, as Chief Financial Officer.

Dr Jorgensen has over a decade of diverse experience in the financial industry focused on healthcare and biopharma at the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Calamos Investments and Stifel Nicolaus, as well as scientific doctoral and post-doctoral training. At QIA, the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar, Dr Jorgensen spearheaded biotechnology and pharmaceutical investment efforts, which included opportunities in public, private, and specialty investments. Prior to joining QIA, he led investments in therapeutics at Calamos, a growth-focused public equity investment firm with $25 billion of assets under management. Before joining Calamos, Dr Jorgensen covered mid- and large-cap biotech companies at the investment bank Stifel Nicolaus.

Prior to working on Wall Street, Dr Jorgensen investigated the pathobiology of Parkinson's disease at the Columbia University Medical Center as a post-doctoral scientist. 

The full text of the announcement from Vor Biopharma is as follows:

Vor Biopharma Adds to Leadership Team with Appointment of Chief Financial Officer

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., - May 26, 2020 - Vor Biopharma, an oncology company pioneering engineered haematopoietic stem cells (eHSCs) for the treatment of cancer, today announced the appointment of Nathan Jorgensen, PhD, as Chief Financial Officer. Dr Jorgensen has over a decade of diverse experience in the financial industry focused on healthcare and biopharma at the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Calamos Investments and Stifel Nicolaus, as well as scientific doctoral and post-doctoral training.

"Nathan is a rare combination of financial analyst and scientist and brings these valuable skills to Vor at an important time in our development as company," said Robert Ang, MBBS, MBA, Vor's President and Chief Executive Officer. "In this leadership role, he will work with us to execute on our financing strategy, allowing us to grow our team and advance our lead programme VOR33 into the clinic, while deepening our scientific platform and pipeline."

Dr Jorgensen brings a comprehensive background of buy-side, sell-side, consulting, and scientific experience to his new role at Vor. At QIA, the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar, he spearheaded biotechnology and pharmaceutical investment efforts, which included opportunities in public, private, and specialty investments. Prior to joining QIA, he led investments in therapeutics at Calamos, a growth-focused public equity investment firm with $25 billion of assets under management. Before joining Calamos, Dr Jorgensen covered mid- and large-cap biotech companies at the investment bank Stifel Nicolaus.

Prior to working on Wall Street, Dr Jorgensen investigated the pathobiology of Parkinson's disease at the Columbia University Medical Center as a post-doctoral scientist. He earned an MBA from the Johnson School at Cornell University and a PhD from the University of Minnesota.

"Vor's approach to engineering haematopoietic stem cells to unlock the potential of targeted therapies is extremely compelling and I consider it amongst the most elegant therapeutic strategies in the field of oncology," said Dr Jorgensen. "I look forward to working with the team to explore potential financing opportunities to advance our science and bring our lead therapy closer to helping patients with blood cancers."

About Vor Biopharma

Vor Biopharma aims to transform the lives of cancer patients by pioneering engineered haematopoietic stem cell (eHSC) therapies. By removing biologically redundant proteins from eHSCs, these cells become inherently invulnerable to complementary targeted therapies while tumour cells are left susceptible, thereby unleashing the potential of targeted therapies to benefit cancer patients in need.

Vor's platform could be used to potentially change the treatment paradigm of both haematopoietic stem cell transplants and targeted therapies, such as antibody drug conjugates, bispecific antibodies and CAR-T cell treatments. A proof-of-concept study for Vor's lead programme has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Vor is based in Cambridge, Mass. and has a broad intellectual property base, including in-licenses from Columbia University, where foundational work was conducted by inventor and Vor Scientific Board Chair Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, DPhil. Vor was founded by Dr Mukherjee and PureTech Health and is supported by leading investors including 5AM Ventures and RA Capital Management, Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JJDC, Inc. (JJDC), Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research and Osage University Partners.

About VOR33

Vor's lead product candidate, VOR33, consists of engineered haematopoietic stem cells (eHSCs) that lack the protein CD33. Once these cells are transplanted into a cancer patient, CD33 becomes a far more cancer-specific target, potentially avoiding toxicity to the normal blood and bone marrow associated with CD33-targeted therapies. In so doing, Vor aims to improve the therapeutic window and effectiveness of CD33-targeted therapies, thereby potentially broadening the clinical benefit to patients suffering from AML.

About PureTech Health

PureTech is a clinical-stage biotherapeutics company dedicated to discovering, developing and commercializing highly differentiated medicines for devastating diseases, including intractable cancers, lymphatic and gastrointestinal diseases, central nervous system disorders and inflammatory and immunological diseases, among others. The Company has created a broad and deep pipeline through the expertise of its experienced research and development team and its extensive network of scientists, clinicians and industry leaders. This pipeline, which is being advanced both internally and through PureTech's Founded Entities, is comprised of 23 product candidates and one product that has been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). All of the underlying programs and platforms that resulted in this pipeline of product candidates were initially identified or discovered and then advanced by the PureTech team through key validation points based on the Company's unique insights into the biology of the brain, immune and gut, or BIG, systems and the interface between those systems, referred to as the BIG Axis.

For more information, visit www.puretechhealth.com or connect with us on Twitter @puretechh.

Forward Looking Statement

This press release contains statements that are or may be forward-looking statements, including statements that relate to the company's future prospects, developments, and strategies. The forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance and achievements to differ materially from current expectations, including, but not limited to, those risks and uncertainties described in the risk factors included in the regulatory filings for PureTech Health plc. These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions regarding the present and future business strategies of the company and the environment in which it will operate in the future. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as at the date of this press release. Except as required by law and regulatory requirements, neither the company nor any other party intends to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.