Cydan Expands Team to Accelerate Development of Innovative Treatments for Patients Living with Rare Diseases

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Cydan, an orphan drug accelerator dedicated to creating therapies that
improve the lives of people living with rare genetic diseases, today
announced that it has named Yongchang Qiu, Ph.D., Vice President of
Preclinical Development and Ryan Tyler, Ph.D., Senior Director of
Preclinical Research. Niels Svenstrup, Ph.D., was promoted to Senior
Vice President of Development. Additionally, Heather Halem, Ph.D., will
serve as a Cydan Fellow to help evaluate and advance new treatments. Dr.
Halem is also Vice President of Research for Cydan’s recently launched
NewCo, Tiburio Therapeutics.

“Since the launch of Cydan, the team has engaged with scientists,
clinicians and entrepreneurs around the world to identify therapies to
address the tremendous unmet need in rare diseases. Cydan has de-risked
nearly 20 projects, launched three companies with novel clinical-stage
compounds, and raised over $220 million in funding from our syndicate of
leading investors to improve the lives of patients with rare diseases,”
said James McArthur, Ph.D., Co-Founder and President of R&D of Cydan.
“To continue this work and expand our impact on patients, we are adding
individuals to our team with a proven track record of rare disease drug
development. We are fortunate to be joined by Yongchang, Ryan and
Heather and thrilled to expand Niels’ role in the company as we work
toward reducing the number of rare diseases without treatments.”

In early 2015, Cydan launched its first new company, Vtesse, which
collaborated with the NIH and launched a registration study to develop a
new therapy for the fatal lysosomal storage disease Niemann-Pick Disease
Type C (NPC). One year after launching Vtesse, Cydan created Imara
to develop IMR-687, a novel treatment for people living with sickle cell
disease, which is currently in a multi-national phase 2 clinical trial. Tiburio,
a clinical-stage company developing new treatments for rare endocrine
disorders, was launched at the start of 2019.

Yongchang Qiu, Ph.D., Vice President, Preclinical Development

• • Yongchang Qiu, Ph.D., is a 20-year veteran of drug discovery and
    development at pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies,
    specializing in translational research, DMPK and immunogenicity risk
    assessment. He has contributed directly to many successful IND and
    BLA/NDA filings in the rare disease space for a variety of drug
    modalities, including small molecules, biologics and gene therapies.
    Prior to joining Cydan, Dr. Qiu was Head of DMPK and Bioanalytical
    Science at Tesaro and a Senior Director and Global Head of
    Bioanalytical and Biomarker Development at Shire, leading a team of
    40+ scientists responsible for design, development, and implementation
    of biomarker strategy, immunogenicity risk assessment, as well as
    safety and diagnostic testing strategies to support numerous
    development programs. Prior to Shire, he was a Director in
    Translational Research at Genzyme focusing on MOA elucidation and
    biomarker development for multiple rare disease programs. Dr. Qiu
    began his career in discovery research at Wyeth in 1998, eventually
    serving as Head of Protein Chemistry and Proteomics.

• • He earned his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Biopharmaceutical
    Sciences at University of California at San Francisco, an M.S. in
    Organic Chemistry at New York University and a B.S. in Chemistry from
    University of Science and Technology of China. Dr. Qiu has authored
    50+ peer-reviewed research articles and 7 original patents.

Ryan Tyler, Ph.D., Senior Director, Preclinical Research

• • Ryan Tyler, Ph.D., brings more than 7 years of pharmaceutical and
    biotechnology discovery and translational biology experience to Cydan
    in the areas of rare and degenerative diseases. His expertise spans
    early- to late-stage discovery research, leading teams leveraging
    innovative cell pharmacology and molecular biology approaches to drive
    therapeutic development, including as part of collaborations with
    patient advocacy groups. Prior to joining Cydan, Dr. Tyler was
    Director of Biology and Drug Discovery at Amathus Therapeutics and
    Director of Biology at Proteostasis Therapeutics, where he led
    research teams in the establishment of new discovery programs and
    preclinical activities that enabled the initiation of clinical
    programs focused on cystic fibrosis therapies. Dr. Tyler began his
    career at Pfizer in the Rare Disease Unit, where he was responsible
    for the development of assays for biomarkers and compound screening
    for cystic fibrosis drug discovery.

• • Dr. Tyler received his doctorate from the University of Michigan and
    completed his postdoctoral studies at Stanford University.

Niels Svenstrup, Ph.D.; Promoted to Senior Vice President, Development

• • Niels Svenstrup, Ph.D., brings to Cydan more than 15 years of
    experience in the pharma and biotech industry across a variety of
    scientific and managerial roles. He has dedicated his career to
    bringing new therapies to patients suffering from diseases with great
    and unmet medical needs. Dr. Svenstrup specializes in CMC and
    discovery chemistry, but his deep experience spans many disciplines
    and the entire value chain of pharmaceutical R&D. His work has
    resulted in the invention of numerous drug candidates of which several
    are currently in clinical development.

• • Before joining Cydan, Dr. Svenstrup served as Director of CMC at
    Ascendis Pharma where he focused on rare diseases in the endocrinology
    space. Prior to his work at Ascendis he was Head of the Department of
    Medicinal Chemistry at H. Lundbeck’s Neuroscience Drug Discovery
    center in Copenhagen, Denmark.

• • Dr. Svenstrup began his career at Bayer Pharma in Germany where he
    served as a medicinal chemist and later as a leader on projects
    addressing viral and bacterial infection, hematology and
    cardiovascular disease.

Heather Halem, Ph.D., Cydan Fellow

• • Heather Halem, Ph.D., brings more than 17 years of pharmaceutical
    experience to Cydan with strong expertise in rare diseases,
    endocrinology, metabolic disorders, oncology and in preclinical
    pharmacology. A senior, cross-functional project team leader, Dr.
    Halem has direct experience leading research programs that have taken
    molecules from early identification to clinical candidates.

• • Prior to joining Cydan, she spent 15 years at Ipsen Bioscience,
    serving most recently as Director, Endocrine Modeling. In the role,
    Dr. Halem led research project teams from early-stage target
    identification and concept assessment through lead optimization and
    into the clinic. She also led the research group focused on developing
    and utilizing models, both for the elucidation of disease mechanisms
    and for the screening and optimization of therapeutic compounds.
    Previously, she was a Senior Scientist at Genome Therapeutics
    identifying novel gene targets for neurodegenerative diseases and
    served as a Research Assistant at Boston University, Massachusetts
    General Hospital and New England Medical Center.