CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 29, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Omega Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: OMGA) (“Omega”), a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of a new class of programmable epigenomic mRNA medicines, today announced the appointment of Dr. Khan Sertel as Chief Business Officer. Dr. Sertel brings extensive biopharmaceutical industry experience to Omega and will be responsible for global business development activities, including strategic partnerships.
“Khan is an accomplished biopharmaceutical executive with deep expertise in business development and corporate strategy, and we are excited to welcome him to Omega's management team,” said Mahesh Karande, president and chief executive officer of Omega Therapeutics. “His strong track record in building strategic partnerships, extensive portfolio strategy experience, leadership and deep scientific pedigree will be invaluable as we build partnership momentum and advance our proprietary Omega platform and pipeline of programmable epigenomic mRNA therapeutics.”
Dr. Sertel added, “I am excited to join Omega at this pivotal time as the company moves towards advancing a versatile approach to precision epigenomic control that has the potential to address nearly every human disease. The broad applicability of the Omega platform provides many exciting opportunities to build valuable strategic business partnerships. I look forward to driving collaborative opportunities, contributing to Omega's company growth, and supporting our mission to bring innovative new therapies to patients.”
Dr. Sertel is a recognized business development leader with over 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and academia. Most recently, he served as Chief Business Officer at Biocity Biopharma, where he led the expansion of the global business development function and coordinated efforts to establish collaborations for the development of pipeline assets. Previously, he served as Global Head of Oncology External Innovation at Sanofi, where he played a pivotal role in strengthening the oncology portfolio by evaluating in-licensing opportunities and leading a number of strategic collaborations. Notably, he also played a key role in the successful immuno-oncology spin-off of X-Chem Pharmaceuticals, overseeing scientific strategy development, pipeline generation, project management and talent acquisition. Dr. Sertel received his PhD in Genetics from the University of Iowa and completed his postdoctoral research at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
About Omega Therapeutics
Omega Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of a new class of programmable epigenomic mRNA medicines aimed at treating or curing a broad range of diseases. Omega's approach to pre-transcriptionally modulate gene expression enables precise epigenomic control of nearly every human gene, including previously undruggable and difficult-to-treat targets, without altering the native nucleic acid sequence. Founded in 2017 by Flagship Pioneering following groundbreaking research by world-renowned experts in the field of epigenetics, Omega is led by a seasoned, highly accomplished leadership team with a track record of innovation and operational excellence. The company is committed to revolutionizing genomic medicine and has a pipeline of therapeutic candidates derived from the Omega platform spanning oncology, regenerative medicine and polygenic diseases such as inflammatory and cardiometabolic diseases.
For more information, visit omegatherapeutics.com or follow us on X and LinkedIn.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to historical facts are deemed to be forward-looking statements. These include, but are not limited to, statements regarding potential development candidates, the formation of strategic partnerships and Dr. Certel's impact on the Company. These statements are not promises or guarantees and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These include, but are not limited to: The new technology underlying our product candidates makes it difficult to predict the duration and costs of preclinical and clinical development and the subsequent obtaining of regulatory approvals (if any). Epigenome Controllers are subject to significant development and regulatory risks due to the novel and unprecedented nature of a new category of pharmaceutical products. We have a limited operating history. these forward-looking statements may be influenced by factors including, but not limited to, the incurrence of significant losses and the fact that we expect to continue to incur significant additional losses for the foreseeable future, the need for significant additional financing, fluctuations in the capital markets and general economic conditions, our investments in research and development to further enhance our OMEGA platform and their impact on our operating results, uncertainties regarding preclinical development, particularly with respect to new classes of medicines such as epigenomic controllers, the possibility of delays in clinical trials and unanticipated costs resulting from clinical trials, the fact that our product candidates may be subject to significant adverse events, undesirable side effects or have other properties that could halt regulatory development, prevent regulatory approval, limit commercial potential or have other properties that could have a material adverse effect, the difficulty of manufacturing the new technology underlying our epigenomic controller candidates and our ability to adapt to rapid and significant technological change, our reliance on third parties for the manufacture of materials, our ability to successfully acquire and establish our own manufacturing facilities and infrastructure, our reliance on a limited number of suppliers of lipid excipients used in our product candidates, our ability to advance our product candidates into clinical development, and our ability to obtain, maintain, enforce and adequately protect intellectual property rights. These and other important factors discussed under the heading “Risk Factors” in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, and our other filings with the SEC could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements made in this press release. Such forward-looking statements represent management's estimates as of the date of this press release. The Company may elect to update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, although it does not assume any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause the Company's views to change.
contact
Investor Contact:
Eva Stroynovsky
617.949.4370
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Media Contact:
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Life Science Communications
646.847.1401
mgodbout@lifescicomms.com
