Flare Therapeutics Further Strengthens Leadership Team with Key Executive Appointments and Promotions

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Mar 30, 2023, 11:00 ET

—Oncology industry veteran and skilled drug developer Michael L. Meyers, M.D., Ph.D. to join as Chief Medical Officer—

—Daphne Karydas, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, promoted to President and Chief Financial Officer and Michaela Bowden, Ph.D., promoted to Chief Development Officer—

—Jigar Raythatha appointed to Board of Directors—

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Flare Therapeutics Inc., a biotechnology company targeting transcription factors to discover precision medicines for cancer and other diseases, today announced the appointment of Michael L. Meyers, M.D., Ph.D. as Chief Medical Officer, as well as the promotions of Daphne Karydas, formerly Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, to President and Chief Financial Officer and Michaela Bowden, Ph.D., formerly Senior Vice President, Biology & Translation, to Chief Development Officer. In addition, Flare announced the appointment of Jigar Raythatha, venture partner at Third Rock Ventures, to its Board of Directors.

"Our commitment to strengthening our team reflects the tremendous progress we have made to date and the pivotal year ahead of us as we transition into a clinical stage company," said Amit Rakhit, M.D., M.B.A., Chief Executive Officer of Flare Therapeutics. "We are excited to welcome Michael to the team as Chief Medical Officer; his long-standing and renowned expertise in the field of oncology will be instrumental to the progress of our therapeutic programs and pipeline. Daphne and Michaela were the first two executives onboarded following Flare's launch two years ago, and both have proven to be inspirational leaders in both internal and forward-facing capacities, bringing a diversity of perspectives and experiences that have proven invaluable."

Michael L. Meyers, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer

Before joining Flare, Dr. Meyers was Chief Medical Officer and SVP, Chief Development Officer at Syndax Pharmaceuticals. Previously, he had held senior-level roles at Johnson & Johnson (J&J), including Vice President, GU Oncology, Compound and Clinical Leader, and Vice President, Oncology Scientific Innovation in J&J's London Innovation Centre. He has actively led numerous early- and late-stage oncology programs culminating in world-wide regulatory approvals and successful launches, including for ZYTIGA® (abiraterone acetate) in prostate cancer and VELCADE® (bortezomib) in multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He also led the medical affairs program at Aventis that investigated TAXOTERE® (docetaxel) in breast, prostate, gastric, head and neck and non-small cell lung cancers, among others. Dr. Meyers served on the faculty at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, specializing in Clinical Immunology and Melanoma. He received his M.D. and his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

"I am thrilled to have the opportunity to apply my previous learnings from navigating clinical and regulatory milestones in oncology as we advance our lead program, FX-909, into a Phase 1 trial and further expand our library of compounds targeting transcription factors thought to be previously undruggable," said Dr. Meyers. "I look forward to working with the impressive Flare team to progress the company's precision oncology programs and bring much needed new therapeutic options to patients."

Daphne Karydas, M.B.A., President and Chief Financial Officer

Ms. Karydas has more than 20 years of experience in financial and operations leadership roles, bringing an interdisciplinary approach to implementing growth strategies for biopharmaceutical and asset management companies. Prior to joining Flare Therapeutics in October 2021, Ms. Karydas was Chief Financial Officer for Syndax Pharmaceuticals. Previously, she worked at Allergan in roles as Senior Vice President of Corporate Financial Planning & Analysis and Strategy, where she oversaw the company's long-term financial and business strategy until its acquisition by AbbVie in May 2020, and as Senior Vice President of Global Investor Relations and Strategy. Ms. Karydas received a BA and MS in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Michaela Bowden, Ph.D., Chief Development Officer

Dr. Bowden is an accomplished research scientist with more than 15 years of interdisciplinary translational expertise spanning academia, biotech and biopharma. Prior to joining Flare in October 2021, Dr. Bowden was at Bristol Myers Squibb where she served as executive director of translational medicine and led the solid tumor team focused on addressing resistance to immuno-oncology therapies, supporting the next-gen drug development pipeline. She also held scientific leadership roles at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute establishing a multidisciplinary research model to meet future precision medicine-driven drug discovery needs. Dr. Bowden has expertise in patient-centric approaches to elucidating novel biology and biomarker insights to support clinical development, leveraging research partnerships across a diverse oncology network at the intersection of disruptive technology, real-world data and evidence and clinical diagnostics. Dr. Bowden has a BSc and Ph.D from Dublin City University and continued her post-doctoral professional training at Tufts University and as a research fellow at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Inc.

Jigar Raythatha, Third Rock Ventures Partner, Board of Directors

Jigar Raythatha, venture partner with Third Rock Ventures, has joined the Board of Directors, bringing a wealth of expertise in precision oncology including previous leadership and board positions at Constellation Pharmaceuticals, Jounce Therapeutics and Triana Biomedicines, among others.

About Flare Therapeutics Inc.
Flare Therapeutics is a biotechnology company changing the paradigm in drugging transcription factors with an initial focus in precision oncology. Flare's proprietary engine is founded on the identification of novel druggable pockets, or 'switch sites', within transcription factor complexes that solve for where to drug and how to tune gene expression to discover small molecule precision medicines for cancer and other diseases. The team has rapidly advanced an emerging pipeline of assets and plans to advance its lead precision oncology program, FX-909, a small molecule inhibitor targeting PPARG into the clinic in 2023 in individuals with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer. For more information, please visit www.flaretx.com.

SOURCE Flare Therapeutics