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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

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

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

Heather Halem, Ph.D., Cydan Fellow

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