F2G APPOINTS NEW NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND TWO SENIOR EXECUTIVES AHEAD OF PIVOTAL YEAR
F2G, the clinical stage rare disease biotech developing the first and only anti-fungal treatment to be granted Breakthrough Therapy status by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has announced a trio of senior appointments to its board and executive team. The new hires bring a significant amount of combined experience in commercialisation, operations and dealmaking within biopharma, with much of that within the rare disease space.
Mark Baglin joins as Chief Commercial Officer, Dr. Janelle Anderson as Chief Business Officer, and Dr. Sylvie Gregoire as Non-Executive Director.
The appointments come at a key time for the business as it targets filing a New Drug Application (NDA) with the FDA for its novel therapeutic, olorofim, later this year. The treatment is an oral agent under development for the treatment of severe fungal infections, including invasive pulmonary aspergillosis and Valley Fever. If approved, olorofim is expected to be the first new class of anti-fungal with a mold-specific mechanism of action in more than 20 years and address genuine unmet needs in conditions with high morbidity and mortality.
Francesco Maria Lavino, F2G’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “Mark, Janelle and Sylvie join us at a pivotal time in our growth journey. They bring a wealth of commercial, operational and dealmaking experience, gained specifically within the rare disease space, which will be key as we move towards a planned NDA filing later this year.
“Competition for skilled, executive-level healthcare talent is at an all-time high and their appointments are a major achievement for us. All three recognise the potential of olorofim as the first and only anti-fungal to receive Breakthrough Therapy status. Collectively, we’re working with the FDA to bring olorofim to patients as quickly as possible and address the enduring unmet need in rare fungal diseases which has persisted for more than two decades.”
Mark joins from RNAi-therapy-focused Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, where he was most recently SVP, Head of Marketed Products, and directed in-line and late-stage programs. Before that, he led the business’ Global Marketing and Commercial Strategy teams, delivering three successful global rare disease product launches in four years.
Prior to joining Alnylam, Mark spent seven years at Shire – the rare disease-focused pharma now part of Takeda – where he helped build and then led the Hereditary Angioedema (HAE) franchise. Earlier in his career, he held global and local commercial leadership roles with a range of mid-to-large size pharma and medtech companies.
Janelle brings more than two decades of operational and dealmaking experience gained from senior roles within the venture capital and biopharma industry. Most recently, she served as Chief Strategy Officer of Century Therapeutics, a biotech company developing immune cell therapies for oncology, which she helped to build and fund while at Versant Ventures. Janelle drove the execution of partnership and M&A deals for Century, enabling its rapid growth and IPO less than three years after launch.
Prior to Century, Janelle led the finance team for the Biologics and Vaccines R&D group at global pharma, MSD (Merck), where she also co-founded the business’s therapeutics focused venture capital arm, MRL Ventures, and served as its managing director. Janelle has also held roles as managing partner of CTI Life Sciences Fund and interim CEO of Access Scientific Inc. She is a board member of Gardiner Healthcare Acquisition Corp.
Sylvie joins the board as non-executive director and adds 30 years of leadership experience within public biopharma companies. She is currently executive chair and co-founder of EIP Pharma, a business focused on neurodegenerative diseases.
Prior to this, Sylvie was president of Shire’s Rare Disease division for six years. She has also held senior executive roles at IDM Pharma, now owned by Takeda, and GlycoFi, acquired by MSD (Merck). Sylvie currently serves on the boards of Novo Nordisk and Perkin Elmer.
Backed by several leading biopharmaceutical investors, F2G operates from bases in Manchester, UK, Princeton in the US and Vienna, Austria.
In addition to two Breakthrough Therapy Designations in the USA, olorofim has been awarded orphan drug and Qualified Infectious Disease Product (QIDP) designations by the FDA. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has also granted olorofim orphan status in the EU.
For more information about this release please contact:
Jonathan Daly jonathan.daly@edelman.com 07890 020 242
Rebecca Flynn Rebecca.flynn@edelman.com 07792 243 948
About F2G
F2G is a clinical stage biotech company focused on the discovery and development of novel therapies to treat life-threatening invasive fungal infections. F2G has discovered and developed a completely new class of antifungal agents called the orotomides. The orotomides selectively target fungal dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH), a key enzyme in the de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis pathway. This is a completely different mechanism from that of the currently marketed antifungal agents and gives the orotomides fungicidal activity against a broad range of rare and resistant fungal mold infections.
Olorofim (formerly, F901318) is F2G's leading candidate from this class and is in a Phase 2b open-label study focusing on rare and resistant invasive fungal infections such as aspergillosis (including azole-resistant strains) and scedosporiosis (including lomentosporiosis). Olorofim has received orphan drug status from the European Medicines Agency for the treatment of invasive aspergillosis and invasive scedosporiosis. Olorofim has received orphan drug status from the FDA for the treatment of coccidioidomycosis scedosporiosis, and invasive aspergillosis.
Olorofim has been granted Qualified Infectious Disease Product (QIDP) designation for invasive aspergillosis, invasive scedosporiosis, invasive lomentosporiosis, coccidioidomycosis, invasive disease due to Scopulariopsis species, and invasive fusariosis. www.f2g.com
