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FORMA Therapeutics Announces Frank D. Lee as Chief Executive Officer

March 21, 2019 Off By BusinessWire

WATERTOWN, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CEO?src=hash" target="_blank"gt;#CEOlt;/agt;–FORMA Therapeutics announced today the appointment of Frank D. Lee as
Chief Executive Officer, starting on March 27, 2019. Frank succeeds
Steve Tregay, Ph.D., who after more than a decade as Founder and CEO,
will transition to the role of Senior Advisor to the CEO. Frank, an
industry veteran and champion for patients, joins FORMA with over 25
years of global experience in product development and commercial
leadership across a wide range of therapeutic areas within the biotech
and pharmaceutical industry. Most recently, Frank served as Senior Vice
President, Global Product Strategy and Therapeutic Area Head for the
Immunology, Ophthalmology and Infectious Diseases at Genentech, a member
of the Roche Group.

“Steve and the Board collaborated to execute a thoughtful succession
plan and I’m pleased to welcome Frank as FORMA’s next CEO. Frank’s
passion for understanding the patient perspective, focused commitment to
offer profoundly meaningful therapeutic solutions, and proven commercial
leadership in building innovative product strategies will undoubtedly
provide FORMA with the critical expertise to advance our pipeline toward
commercialization,” said Peter Wirth, Chairman, Board of Directors,
FORMA Therapeutics. “Throughout his career, Frank has proven to be an
accomplished leader significantly impacting human health through
building highly productive teams, fostering a patient-centric culture,
and opening of new markets to advance ground-breaking medicines. With
several candidates now in ongoing Phase I and Phase II studies, Frank
has a tremendous opportunity to accelerate FORMA’s R&D activities to
provide sustained impact.”

“FORMA’s ten-year foundation of excellence in discovery research and
development, the depth of scientific talent and mission driven culture,
as well as the multiple potentially transformative medicines now in the
clinic, provide a unique opportunity to dramatically improve the lives
of patients with serious diseases,” said Frank D. Lee, incoming CEO,
FORMA Therapeutics. “I’m excited to lead such a remarkable organization
through the next growth phase including product approval and launch,
while continuing to sustain an innovative pipeline for the long-term.
It’s an honor to continue the legacy of building an innovative research
company committed to patients, transformative science and company
culture.”

Peter Wirth added, “The FORMA Board of Directors extends deep gratitude
to Steve for his contributions as founder and years of service as CEO
and we wish him the best for his next endeavor. Steve’s entrepreneurial
talent and interests reside in reinventing the way potential new drugs
are identified, explored and developed, and he grew FORMA with
disruptive innovation as part of its core DNA. During Steve’s time at
FORMA, he championed the company’s evolution from a chemistry platform
focused organization, toward a premiere research partner delivering high
quality drug candidates, and recently to a fully integrated R&D company
with a robust proprietary pipeline of clinical and preclinical assets in
oncology, hematology and inflammatory diseases.”

“After leading the company for over 10 years, I believe now is the ideal
time for a transition,” said Steve Tregay, Ph.D. “With an incoming CEO
who has the ideal background to propel the pipeline towards
commercialization and realize the company’s vision to change lives for
patients, I am truly excited about FORMA’s future. I plan to work with
the Board, Frank and FORMA’s leadership team to ensure a smooth
transition and equally look forward to my next journey in continuing to
transform the paradigm of drug discovery.” Steve is founder and Chairman
of the Board of Compass Therapeutics and a founding Board member of
LabCentral.

Frank’s thirteen-year career at Genentech included leadership positions
of increasing scope and responsibility for delivering transformative
medicines to patients. Most recently, as Senior Vice President, Global
Product Strategy, he was responsible for driving development and
commercial strategy for a broad portfolio of molecules in development
and for global in-line product sales of more than $11 Billion.
Previously, as Vice President of the HER2/Breast Cancer Franchise, Frank
was responsible for the US P&L for Herceptin^®, Perjeta^®
and Kadcyla^®, driving revenues over $4 Billion and launching
the first HER2 neoadjuvant indication shaping a new market and treatment
paradigm for early HER2 breast cancer patients. As Vice President of
Oral Oncolytics, Frank held P&L responsibility for Tarceva^®,
Zelboraf^®, Erivedge^® and Xeloda^®,
advancing personalized medicine for cancer patients with EGFR+ NSCLC and
BRAF+ melanoma, and establishing a new treatment option for patients
with advanced basal cell carcinoma. Other roles at Genentech included
Franchise Head, Transplant and Tamiflu^® as well as Director
of Marketing for Ophthalmology and Respiratory. Prior to joining
Genentech, Frank spent approximately 13 years across Novartis, Janssen
and Eli Lilly in engineering, manufacturing, sales/marketing and
business development.

Frank received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN., and an M.B.A. in Marketing and
Finance from the Wharton Graduate School of Business, Philadelphia, PA.
He previously served on the Board of the Genentech Foundation.

About FORMA

FORMA Therapeutics’ scientists are passionate about discovering and
developing medicines that will make a difference in oncology,
inflammation, neurodegeneration and other serious diseases. The
Company’s fully-integrated R&D team drives discovery and clinical
development of therapeutics for qualified targets in the areas of
epigenetics, protein homeostasis and metabolism. Leveraging a world
class network of academic investigators, clinical experts and partners,
FORMA combines deep biology insight, chemistry expertise and clinical
development capabilities, to create drug candidates providing profound
patient benefit. www.formatherapeutics.com