Cerevance Appoints Industry Veteran as Vice President of Drug Discovery

Former Head of Neuroscience Medicinal Chemistry at AstraZeneca,
Roland Bürli, Ph.D., to lead therapeutic development against novel CNS
targets

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CNS?src=hash" target="_blank"gt;#CNSlt;/agt;–Cerevance, a clinical-stage drug discovery and development company
focused on central nervous system diseases, today announced the
appointment of Roland Bürli, Ph.D. as Vice President of Drug Discovery.
Bürli brings expertise in preclinical drug discovery, specializing in
medicinal and synthetic chemistry, with a proven track record from hit
identification through lead optimization, having led efforts that
discovered six pre-clinical candidate molecules, including a program now
in Phase II.

“Roland’s addition to our executive team is a critical step as we
continue expanding our pipeline,” said Mark Carlton, Chief Scientific
Officer at Cerevance. “His drug discovery experience from leading
inter-disciplinary project teams in the pharma, biotech and CRO sectors
will be invaluable as we advance CNS therapeutics acting on selectively
expressed targets identified by our NETSseq platform.”

Prior to joining Cerevance, Bürli spent six years as Head of Medicinal
Chemistry in the Neuroscience team at AstraZeneca, United Kingdom. As
part of the Neuroscience leadership team, he significantly influenced
the portfolio, which spanned neurodegeneration, neuro-developmental
disorders and analgesia. He also served in project leadership roles
directing target validation, lead generation and optimization.

Before AstraZeneca, Bürli spent five years at BioFocus, leading
early-stage and lead optimization projects in neurodegeneration,
inflammation and sensory disorders. Earlier in his career, he led a
competitive team at Amgen through early and late-stage preclinical
programs in inflammation. Bürli completed his postdoctoral training at
the California Institute of Technology and received his Ph.D in Organic
Chemistry as well as a Diploma in Chemistry from the Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology in Zürich, Switzerland.

“Our industry urgently needs new CNS drug targets with good disease
linkage, and Cerevance’s approach holds the potential to transform the
CNS drug discovery paradigm by providing modulators for these novel
targets,” said Bürli. “I am thrilled to be joining the Cerevance team
at such an important time for the company, and I am confident we have
the potential to positively change the lives of those who suffer from a
broad range of CNS diseases.”

About Cerevance

Cerevance is a private pharmaceutical company focused on central nervous
system diseases. The company’s strengths include its powerful
NETSseq target discovery platform, a pipeline of novel discovery-stage
and clinical-stage compounds and a team with a proven track record. Its
scientists believe that they are well positioned to deliver
life-changing therapeutics for patients who have brain-related disorders.

Contacts

Cerevance
Robert Middlebrook
+1-408-220-5722

Media:
Andrew Mielach
LifeSci Public Relations
+1.646.876.5868
[email protected]