IFM Therapeutics Appoints H. Martin Seidel as Executive Vice President of Research and Development

BOSTON, May 23, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- IFM Therapeutics (IFM), a biopharmaceutical company developing a portfolio of first-in-class small molecules targeting the innate immune system for the treatment of cancer, inflammatory and autoimmune disease, announced today that H. Martin Seidel will be joining the company as Executive Vice President of Research and Development. In this new role, Seidel will be responsible for the development, expansion, and oversight of IFM's pipeline.

"The innate immune system is fundamentally important to human health. Inappropriate activation can lead to disease processes such as inflammation, autoimmunity and fibrosis, while proper stimulation of the innate immune system can produce therapeutic responses to cancer. By focusing on this biology, IFM is exceptionally well-positioned to address a wide variety of important unmet medical needs," said Seidel. "IFM has assembled an impressive team, and I look forward to working with them to translate the promise of regulating the innate immune system into impactful medicines for patients."

Seidel brings deep experience in business development, drug discovery and strategy. He joins IFM from Novartis, where he was most recently the Global Head of Strategic Alliances for the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR) and led a team responsible for creating collaborations with external partners to help advance NIBR's mission. In that role, he and his team executed more than 70 deals that encompassed in-licenses, out-licenses, collaborations, acquisitions and equity investments, and he has been a Board Observer with IFM since Novartis' investment in IFM's Series A financing. Prior to that, Seidel was head of NIBR's Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF), where he helped advance more than 40 clinical candidates, including 25 programs that progressed to the clinic and 13 new molecular entities that achieved positive clinical proof of concept. He has served as Board Observer with Luc/Cadent Therapeutics, Surface Oncology, Raze Therapeutics, Arcus Biosciences, Intellia Therapeutics, and Caribou Biosciences.

"We're thrilled to welcome Martin to IFM's senior management team," said Gary D. Glick, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of IFM. "Martin is an extraordinarily accomplished executive. As both a scientist and an investor, Martin brings a unique combination of skills to enhance IFM's corporate strategy and propel innate immunity to the forefront of treatments for patients with cancer, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases."

About the Innate Immune System
Innate immunity is our body's first response and first line of defense to external threats, such as viruses. If the immune system consistently under-responds or over-responds, serious diseases can result. IFM Therapeutics has developed first-in-class agents to control pattern recognition receptors, which are powerful mediators of innate immune responses. By precisely activating these mediators, IFM's drug candidates aim to enhance immune responses for the treatment of cancer. Conversely, silencing these responses has the potential to treat a range of inflammatory and autoimmune disorders.

About IFM Therapeutics
IFM Therapeutics is a privately held biopharmaceutical company based in Boston, Massachusetts and funded by Atlas Venture, Abingworth and Novartis. Founded in 2015 by an international group of preeminent scientists and physicians who have spent decades understanding innate immunity and the role it plays in regulating the immune system, IFM's team has discovered and developed small molecules that modulate novel targets in the innate immune system as next generation therapies for cancer, autoimmunity, and inflammatory disorders. Candidates in the IFM portfolio are expected to significantly improve upon standard of care agents in terms of efficacy and safety. For more information, please visit www.ifmthera.com.

SOURCE IFM Therapeutics

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http://www.ifmthera.com