Audentes Therapeutics Announces Changes to Senior Management Team

SAN FRANCISCO, May 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Audentes Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: BOLD), a leading AAV-based genetic medicines company focused on developing and commercializing innovative products for serious rare neuromuscular diseases, today announced that it has appointed Edward R. Conner, M.D. as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer and promoted Fulvio Mavilio, Ph.D. to Senior Vice President of Translational Science.  Dr. Suyash Prasad, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer and Dr. John Gray, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer are leaving Audentes.

"We are delighted to welcome Ed and Fulvio to our senior leadership team," stated Matthew R. Patterson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.  "Each is a recognized industry leader with a demonstrated track-record in the development of novel gene therapy products targeting rare diseases, and we look forward to their contributions as we progress AT132 for the treatment of XLMTM towards regulatory submissions, and advance our Pompe, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and myotonic dystrophy programs into clinical development.  I would also like to thank Suyash and John for their numerous important contributions to Audentes."

As Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, Ed will be responsible for leading the global clinical development strategy for Audentes.  He will oversee clinical development, clinical operations, regulatory affairs, medical affairs and patient advocacy.  Ed's appointment is effective July 15, 2019.  In Fulvio's new role as Senior Vice President of Translational Science, he is responsible for advancing the company's pipeline from discovery through to IND-enabling preclinical development.  Fulvio oversees the molecular biology, in vivo pharmacology, bioinformatics and bioanalytics functions.

Ed joins Audentes from Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc. where he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer and led the clinical development of the company's pipeline of genomic therapies.  Prior to Sangamo, Ed served as Vice President, Global Clinical Development at Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc., where he led the global clinical development efforts for two of the company's rare disease product candidates.  Prior to Ultragenyx, Ed served as Senior Medical Director at BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc., where he led clinical development and regulatory interactions for its global Phase 3 program in Pompe disease, and earlier in his career Ed served as Medical Director at Genentech, Inc. where he was the clinical science team leader of two product candidates, including XOLAIR®.  Ed completed his Internal Medicine residency training at the University of Michigan and was a fellow in Clinical Immunology and Allergic Diseases at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.  He earned a B.S. in Biology, cum laude, from Duke University and his M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco.

Fulvio is a highly regarded, world-leading expert and pioneer in the gene therapy field.  He has designed and developed gene therapies for inherited and acquired diseases, including the first ever commercially approved ex vivo gene therapy, Strimvelis^®.  Fulvio joined Audentes in 2017 from Genethon where he served as Chief Scientific Officer and led the development of a robust pipeline of gene therapy programs, including the initial discovery work for AT132.  Prior to Genethon, Fulvio was co-Director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine of the University of Modena, Director of Discovery of Molmed SpA, founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Genera SpA, and co-Director of the San Raffaele-Telethon Institute of Gene Therapy.  Fulvio serves as Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.  He earned an undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of Rome and a Ph.D. in Medical Genetics at the University of Rome School of Medicine.

About Audentes Therapeutics, Inc.
Audentes Therapeutics (Nasdaq: BOLD) is a leading AAV-based genetic medicines company focused on developing and commercializing innovative products for serious rare neuromuscular diseases.  We are leveraging our AAV gene therapy technology platform and proprietary manufacturing expertise to develop programs across three modalities: gene replacement, vectorized exon skipping, and vectorized RNA knockdown.  Our product candidates are showing promising therapeutic profiles in clinical and preclinical studies across a range of neuromuscular diseases.  Audentes is a focused, experienced and passionate team driven by the goal of improving the lives of patients.

For more information regarding Audentes, please visit www.audentestx.com.

Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, the timing and nature of the company's research and development activities. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. Although the company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, the company cannot guarantee future events, results, actions, levels of activity, performance or achievements, and the timing and results of biotechnology development and potential regulatory approval is inherently uncertain. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause the company's actual activities or results to differ significantly from those expressed in any forward-looking statement, including risks and uncertainties related to the company's ability to advance its product candidates, obtain regulatory approval of and ultimately commercialize its product candidates, the timing and results of preclinical and clinical trials, the company's ability to fund development activities and achieve development goals, establish and scale-up manufacturing processes that comply with regulatory requirements, and protect intellectual property and other risks and uncertainties described under the heading "Risk Factors" in documents the company files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release, and the company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof.

Audentes Contacts:

Investor Contact:
Andrew Chang
415.818.1033
[email protected]

Media Contacts:
Sarah Spencer
415.957.2020
[email protected]

Katie Hogan
415.951.3398
[email protected]

SOURCE Audentes Therapeutics, Inc.

Related Links

http://audentestx.com