Esker Therapeutics Appoints New Team Members and Board Director

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Esker Therapeutics, a Foresite Labs-incubated precision medicine company that is reimagining the discovery, development and treatment of autoimmune disorders, today announced the appointment of several new team members:

• Kimberly Lindstorm, Ph.D., as vice president, regulatory
• Travis Remarchuk, Ph.D., as executive director, CMC
• Zhengbin (Bing) Yao, Ph.D., as a member of the board of directors

“We are very pleased to announce the expansion of our exceptional founding team with the additions of Kim and Travis, who bring important insights in their respective focus areas to Esker. As we advance our lead program, ESK-001, and our newer programs, which we are actively pursuing through insights derived from our analytics platform, their expertise will be critical to our success,” said June Lee, M.D., president and chief executive officer of Esker. “We are also excited to welcome Bing to our board, whose experience in leading immunology programs from development to market at several prominent biopharma companies will be highly valuable to Esker.”

Dr. Lindstrom joined Esker from Bristol Myers Squibb, where she served as senior director, regulatory affairs after the company’s acquisition of MyoKardia, a precision medicine company focused on discovering and developing precision medicines for cardiovascular diseases. At MyoKardia, Dr. Lindstrom built and led the company’s regulatory strategy team, with responsibility for global regulatory strategy across the portfolio. As the global regulatory lead for MyoKardia’s lead asset, mavacamten, she led the company’s first-ever New Drug Application (NDA) submission. Prior to joining MyoKardia, Dr. Lindstrom held roles of increasing responsibility in regulatory affairs at Gilead Sciences, where she focused on drugs for HIV treatment and HIV prevention, including leading the NDA for Biktarvy®. Dr. Lindstrom holds a Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Washington and completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Washington’s Department of Genome Sciences.

Dr. Remarchuk brings more than 15 years of small molecule drug development experience in the biotechnology industry. Prior to joining Esker, Dr. Remarchuk was CMC director and staff scientist at Denali Therapeutics, leading development efforts for multiple clinical candidates being evaluated for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Prior to Denali, he was a senior scientist in the small molecule process chemistry group at Genentech (a member of the Roche group) from 2006–2016. He was the process chemistry leader for multiple oncology drug candidates in development from the discovery phase through Phase 3 clinical trials. He received his Ph.D. with Professor Larry Overman at UCI in 2003 and was then a postdoctoral fellow with Professor E.J. Corey at Harvard University prior to joining Genentech. Dr. Remarchuk started his industrial career in process chemistry at Agouron Pharmaceuticals in San Diego in 1996, having developed new synthetic routes for the HIV protease inhibitor Viracept® and the rhinovirus protease inhibitor Rupintrivir®.

Dr. Yao is an accomplished executive and scientist with more than 25 years of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. He was chairman, chief executive officer and co-founder of Viela Bio until it was acquired by Horizon Therapeutics in March 2021. Formerly, he was the senior vice president, R&D and head of respiratory, inflammation and autoimmunity at MedImmune. Dr. Yao was also senior vice president and head of the Immuno-Oncology Franchise at AstraZeneca. During his tenure at MedImmune and Astrazenca, he played key leadership roles in the development and approval of multiple novel biologics for autoimmune, respiratory and immuno-oncology indications. Prior to joining MedImmune, Dr. Yao led the project team leaders group for immunology, neurosciences, virology and metabolism for Genentech, and prior to that, served as vice president of research and corporate officer for Tanox before it was acquired by Genentech. Earlier in his career, Dr. Yao held key roles at Aventis and Amgen. He received his Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the University of Iowa, has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and holds over 20 patents and patent applications.

About Esker Therapeutics

Esker is a precision medicines company looking to eliminate the “all comer” approach that is seen with today’s treatments for people with autoimmune disease. Even with innovation of the last decade, many patients continue to cycle through the approved therapies while continuing to look for the right therapy to alleviate the impact of their disease without life-impacting side effects. Esker leverages a precision analytics platform, powered by Foresite Labs, coupled with a team of experts with deep experience in precision medicine drug development and immunology, in order to create medicines that change the lives of people with autoimmune disease. For more information, please visit eskertherapeutics.com.

Contacts

Dan Budwick, 1AB

[email protected]