CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 29, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Mersana Therapeutics, Inc. today announced that Michael J. Kaufman, Ph.D., has been appointed Senior Vice President, Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls (CMC), effective immediately. Dr. Kaufman will lead the process development, scale-up and supply chain management for Mersana’s growing pipeline of Fleximer®-based immunoconjugates.
“Michael’s proven track record of success in scaling up a broad range of novel platforms will be essential to Mersana as we advance our lead candidate XMT-1522 into the clinic and continue to progress our pipeline,” said Anna Protopapas, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mersana. “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Michael again; he is a strategic leader with outstanding technical acumen that will greatly benefit our pipeline development and overall company growth.”
Dr. Kaufman brings a wealth of experience in process development, scale-up, formulation and supply chain management across multiple therapeutic modalities, including immunoconjugates. Most recently, he served as Biogen’s Vice President, Technical Development, where he provided technical leadership for all products from preclinical to commercial stage. Prior to joining Biogen in 2012, Dr. Kaufman spent 10 years at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, most recently as Vice President, Pharmaceutical Sciences leading all aspects of CMC. Dr. Kaufman started his pharmaceutical career at Merck and Co., Inc., where he spent 15 years in various roles of increasing responsibility.
“Mersana’s Fleximer-based immunoconjugates have the potential to make a meaningful difference for cancer patients,” said Dr. Kaufman. “I’m excited to join an outstanding team and help Mersana leverage the Fleximer platform.”
Dr. Kaufman holds a Ph.D. in Physical Organic Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.S. in Chemistry from State University of New York, Stony Brook. He was a post-doctoral fellow at Louisiana State University and an instructor at the University of California.
About Mersana Therapeutics
Mersana Therapeutics is advancing a proprietary pipeline of targeted oncology therapeutics leveraging its game-changing Fleximer® immunoconjugate technology. Mersana’s first product candidate XMT-1522 has the potential to address significant unmet needs and improve patient outcomes in multiple oncology indications. Fleximer-based immunoconjugate molecules have been shown to have superior efficacy, including with targets previously considered not amenable to antibody-drug conjugate approaches. Mersana has collaborations utilizing Fleximer technology with Takeda, Merck KGaA, and Asana BioSciences. For more information, please visit www.mersana.com.
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