Skyhawk Therapeutics Expands Leadership Team with Chief Medical Officer and Head of Chemistry, and adds to its Scientific Advisory Board

News provided by

Oct 05, 2020, 09:00 ET

Joseph Duffy PhD brings 20+ years of small molecule discovery chemistry and operations to his role as SVP Chemistry of Skyhawk Therapeutics,
Elliot Ehrich MD brings 20+ years of clinical development for novel pharmaceuticals to his role as Chief Medical Officer of Skyhawk Therapeutics, and
Rob Hershberg MD-PhD with 25+ years of biotech and pharma experience has joined Skyhawk's Scientific Advisory Board.

WALTHAM, Mass., Oct. 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Skyhawk Therapeutics today announced that Dr. Elliot Ehrich has joined the Company as Chief Medical Officer and Dr. Joseph Duffy has joined as Senior Vice President of Chemistry. The Company also strengthened its Scientific Advisory Board with the addition of Dr. Rob Hershberg.

"We are delighted that Joe and Elliot have come on board at Skyhawk," said Bill Haney, co-founder and CEO of Skyhawk Therapeutics. "Their combined scientific and clinical accomplishments will be invaluable in shepherding our novel RNA-targeting small molecule drug candidates successfully into the clinic. We are also excited to welcome Rob to our Scientific Advisory Board. His clinical and scientific insight and deep experience as a drug developer will be a tremendous addition to Skyhawk."

Elliot Ehrich, MD most recently served as a Venture Partner at 5AM Ventures and Chief Medical Officer (CMO) at Expansion Therapeutics, a 5AM Ventures portfolio company. Previously, Dr. Ehrich spent 17 years at Alkermes ultimately as Executive Vice President of R&D and CMO. At Alkermes he led the development and successful FDA registration of multiple new medicines. Dr. Ehrich has also worked in clinical pharmacology and clinical research at Merck &Co, Inc..

Dr. Ehrich received a BA in biochemistry from Princeton University and an MD from Columbia University. He completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in immunology and rheumatology at Stanford University Medical School followed by postdoctoral research the Department of Microbiology and Immunology.

Over the past four years, Joseph Duffy PhD, served as Executive Director of Discovery Chemistry at Merck Research Laboratories in Rahway and Kenilworth, New Jersey, where he oversaw multiple preclinical drug discovery teams. Dr. Duffy's contributions over 24 years at Merck included all phases of drug discovery, from lead identification through clinical phase candidate development. He directed successful lead optimization efforts for multiple indications, resulting in clinical candidates and Investigational New Drug (IND) applications from both internal projects and international collaborative research with biotech organizations. Dr. Duffy received his B.Sc. in Chemistry from Kent State University and his Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Rob Hershberg MD-PhD began his career as an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and an Associate Physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Later, Dr. Hershberg co-founded VentiRx Pharmaceuticals and, as President and Chief Executive Officer, led the company through its transformational partnership with Celgene. Dr. Hershberg joined Celgene in 2014 to lead their efforts in Immuno-Oncology, was promoted to Chief Scientific Officer in 2016, and was subsequently Executive Vice President and Head of Business Development & Global Alliances and served as a member of the Executive Committee until the acquisition of Celgene by Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2019. Rob is currently a Venture Partner on the Frazier Life Sciences team. He completed his undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of California, Los Angeles and received his Ph.D. at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

Dr Hershberg joins Skyhawk's distinguished Scientific Advisory Board which includes:

SAB Chair Tyler Jacks PhD, Director of MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and Professor of Biology at MIT
Frédéric Allain PhD, Professor, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics at ETH, Zurich, Switzerland
Steven Bell PhD, Professor of Biology at MIT
Ben Blencowe PhD, Banbury Chair of Medical Research, Professor in the Donnelly Centre at the University of Toronto, and Director of the Donnelly Sequencing Centre.
Ben Ebert, MD-PhD, the George P. Canellos, MD and Jean S. Canellos Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Chair of Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Adrian Krainer PhD, Professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Jeannie Lee PhD, Professor of Genetics and Pathology at Harvard Medical School, the Blavatnik Institute, and the Massachusetts General Hospital
Jackie Lees PhD, Associate Director, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Professor of Biology at MIT
Friedrich Metzger PhD, Professor of Neurobiology at the University of Freiburg, Germany, former Head of Discovery Rare Diseases at Roche
Phillip Sharp PhD, MIT Institute Professor, a member of the Koch Institute, and winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of "split genes" (splicing)
Maurice Swanson PhD, Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at the University of Florida College of Medicine, and Associate Director of the Center for NeuroGenetics About Skyhawk Therapeutics

Skyhawk Therapeutics is committed to discovering, developing and commercializing therapies that use its novel SkySTAR^TM (Skyhawk Small molecule Therapeutics for Alternative splicing of RNA) platform to build small molecule drugs that bring breakthrough treatments to patients.

For more information visit: www.skyhawktx.com, https://twitter.com/Skyhawk_Tx , https://www.linkedin.com/company/skyhawk-therapeutics/

SKYHAWK MEDIA CONTACT:
Anne Deconinck
[email protected]

SOURCE Skyhawk Therapeutics