AVROBIO Inc. announced the expansion of its senior management with three key hires. Nerissa Kreher, MD, MS, MBA joins as Chief Medical Officer for Rare Diseases, Kathryn McNaughton, PhD joins as Senior Vice President of Portfolio and Program Management and Richard Pfeifer, PhD, DABT joins as Director of Preclinical Development. Dr. Kreher is a pediatric endocrinologist with deep academic, clinical research and biotechnology industry experience. She has held leadership roles in both clinical development and medical affairs within private start-up biotechnology and large biotechnology companies focused on rare diseases. Most recently Dr. Kreher was the Global Head of Clinical and Medical Affairs at Zafgen Inc. Formerly she held roles of increasing responsibility at Shire, Alexion, Enobia Pharma, Genzyme and EMD Serono. Dr. McNaughton has 20 years of experience in the biotech industry encompassing R&D, Program Management and assessment of business development opportunities. She brings to AVROBIO deep expertise in global program leadership and orphan drug development, extending from the preclinical stage through commercialization. Dr. McNaughton was previously Vice President, R&D Pipeline Program Management at Synageva, and held roles of increasing responsibility at Shire and Praecis Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Pfeifer is a board-certified toxicologist with substantial industry experience providing technical and strategic leadership in toxicology and drug safety assessment across a broad range of therapeutic areas. His expertise spans small-molecule pharmaceuticals, biopharmaceuticals, vaccines, medical devices and gene therapies. Dr. Pfeifer was previously Head of Toxicology at Shire, and held roles of increasing responsibility at Wyeth Research, Ciba-Geigy Corp., and in the contract services industry. Dr. Pfeifer was also an Assistant Professor of Toxicology at Purdue University. Dr. Pfeifer pursued postdoctoral fellowships in Immunotoxicology at the Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Tectonic Therapeutic, Inc. is a biotechnology company. The Company is focused on the discovery and development of therapeutic proteins and antibodies that modulate the activity of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). Leveraging its technology platform called GEODe (GPCRs Engineered for Optimal Discovery), the Company is focused on developing biologic medicines that overcome the existing challenges of GPCR-targeted drug discovery and harness the human body to modify the course of disease. The Companyâs lead program, TX000045 (TX45), is an Fc-relaxin fusion molecule that activates the RXFP1 receptor, the GPCR target of the hormone relaxin. TX45 is being evaluated in Phase Ia/Ib clinical trials as a potential treatment for Group 2 Pulmonary Hypertension with Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction (HFpEF). Its second program addresses Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT).