Kodiak Sciences Appoints Bassil I. Dahiyat, Ph.D. Robert A. Profusek, J.D. and Richard S. Levy, M.D. to its Board of Directors

News provided by

Jul 18, 2018, 06:00 ET

PALO ALTO, Calif., July 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Kodiak Sciences Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company specializing in novel therapeutics to treat high prevalence ophthalmic diseases, today announced the appointments of Bassil I. Dahiyat, Ph.D., Robert A. Profusek, J.D., and Richard S. Levy, M.D. to its Board of Directors.

"We are pleased to welcome Bassil, Bob, and Rich to our board of directors. Bassil's track record as a proven company builder and scientific expert will be instrumental to Kodiak as we deepen our pipeline. Bob's experience as a global expert in corporate governance brings a wealth of business acumen and wisdom. Rich's track record as a seasoned clinical and regulatory specialist will provide an important resource as we advance KSI-301 and our other product candidates," said Victor Perlroth, M.D., Kodiak's Chief Executive Officer. "Together, these leaders provide us with diverse and complementary perspectives, across both science and business, as we pursue our ambitious goal of becoming a global leader in ophthalmology medicines development."

Dr. Dahiyat is the co-founder of Xencor (NASDAQ: XNCR), a biopharmaceutical company, and has been its President and Chief Executive Officer since the Company's incorporation in August 1997. Dr. Dahiyat is a co-inventor of Xencor's breakthrough XmAb® antibody engineering technology. He has led Xencor in raising over $700 million in public and private financing, creating a diverse portfolio of monoclonal antibody clinical programs for the treatment of life-threatening and debilitating diseases and establishing alliances with leading biopharmaceutical companies that generated over $200 million in upfront payments. Dr. Dahiyat holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Caltech and B.S. and M.S.E. degrees in Biomedical Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University. He has co-authored numerous scientific papers in the fields of protein design and drug delivery, is an inventor of 33 US and numerous foreign patents and has received scientific awards from the American Chemical Society, the Controlled Release Society, the Protein Society and Caltech.

"I'm excited to be joining the board of Kodiak Sciences, a company with a passion for preventing blindness and improving human health," said Dr. Dahiyat. "Kodiak's Antibody Biopolymer Conjugate (ABC™) platform merges the fields of biologics and chemistry-based therapies, an area of deep interest for me in my career."

Mr. Profusek is a partner at Jones Day, a global law firm of over 2,500 attorneys, where he chairs the firm's global M&A practice. Since joining Jones Day in 1975, Mr. Profusek has become a widely-recognized expert in mergers, acquisitions, and corporate governance matters, including shareholder activism and executive compensation. Mr. Profusek also currently serves as the lead independent director of both CTS Corporation (NYSE: CTS), a designer and manufacturer of sensors, actuators and electronic components, and Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE: VLO), an international manufacturer and marketer of transportation fuels and other petrochemical products. Mr. Profusek is a frequent speaker regarding corporate takeovers and corporate governance, has authored or co-authored numerous articles, has testified before Congress and the SEC about takeover and compensation-related matters and is a frequent guest commentator on CNBC, CNN and Bloomberg TV. Mr. Profusek holds a J.D. from New York University and a B.A. from Cornell University.

"Kodiak Sciences is bringing a strong scientific foundation and an exceptional team to the development of novel ophthalmology medicines designed to prevent and treat blindness for hundreds of millions of people globally," said Mr. Profusek. "I am very excited to be contributing to this mission and lending my corporate expertise to Kodiak during a transformative time for the business."

Dr. Levy served as Executive Vice President and Chief Drug Development Officer of Incyte Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company, from January 2009 to April 2016 and previously served as Senior Vice President of Drug Development from August 2003 to January 2009. Prior to joining Incyte, Dr. Levy served as Vice President, Biologic Therapies, at Celgene Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company, from 2002 to 2003. From 1997 to 2002, Dr. Levy served in various executive positions with DuPont Pharmaceuticals Company, first as Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Pharmacovigilance, and thereafter as Vice President, Medical and Commercial Strategy. Dr. Levy served at Sandoz, a pharmaceutical company and predecessor of Novartis, from 1991 to 1997 in positions of increasing responsibility in clinical research and regulatory affairs. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Levy served as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the UCLA School of Medicine. Dr. Levy is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology. He received his A.B. in Biology from Brown University, his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and completed his training in Internal Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and a fellowship in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at UCLA.

"In my career, I have had the privilege of planning and executing global clinical and regulatory strategies for innovative therapeutics," said Dr. Levy. "Kodiak is working at the cutting edge of science on important new medicines that are designed to go beyond what is possible with today's therapies. I look forward to working closely with the Kodiak team."

About Kodiak Sciences Inc.
Kodiak Sciences is a clinical stage company developing innovative therapeutics to treat high prevalence ophthalmic diseases. We aspire to global leadership in ophthalmology through internal focus and by aggregating top talent, technologies, discoveries and ideas. Our Antibody Biopolymer Conjugate, or ABC™, platform merges the fields of antibody-based and chemistry-based therapies and is at the core of Kodiak's discovery engine. In addition to its lead product candidate, KSI-301, a potential best in class molecule for age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, Kodiak has leveraged its ABC platform to build a pipeline of product candidates in various stages of development including KSI-501, a dual inhibitor ABC for the treatment of diabetic retinopathy. Kodiak is based in Palo Alto, CA.

SOURCE Kodiak Sciences Inc.