Tunitas Therapeutics Expands Board of Directors with Appointment of Dr. Mervyn Turner

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., April 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Tunitas Therapeutics, Inc. today announced the appointment of Mervyn Turner, Ph.D. to the Tunitas Board of Directors.

"Merv has had an illustrious career of over 30 years in pharmaceutical drug discovery, research and development, business development and corporate strategy," said Nolan Sigal, M.D., Ph.D., President and Chief Executive officer of Tunitas. "We expect that his deep experience in taking therapeutics from discovery through the entire development cycle, his important industry perspective, and his global connections within the pharmaceutical industry will provide enormous value to Tunitas."

Before retiring from Merck & Co., Dr. Turner was the company's first Chief Strategy Officer, and drove strategy planning and resource planning discussions. Prior to that, he served as head of World Wide Licensing and External Research, where he was personally involved in more than 200 strategic transactions.  As Site Head for both Merck & Co. Inc.'s largest R&D facility (Rahway, NJ) and its most productive lab (Merck Frosst, Canada), he oversaw the introduction of multiple development candidates.

Dr. Turner is currently an Advisor to Bay City Capital in San Francisco. In addition to serving on the Board of Tunitas, he is also on the Board of the private biotechnology companies Pharmakea and EnGeneIC. Merv serves on the Steering Committee of the Wellcome Trust's "Seeding Drug Discovery" program.

About Tunitas Therapeutics

Tunitas Therapeutics, Inc. (South San Francisco) is dedicated to the discovery and development of novel therapeutics designed to transform the treatment of patients with serious allergic diseases. Its proprietary platform facilitates the generation of fusion proteins that target novel inhibitory pathways on allergic cells, leading to inhibition of the key mediators of allergic hypersensitivity and the production of IgE, the antibody class that triggers the allergic response. Epsi-gam, the company's lead drug candidate, is designed as a long-term treatment for any IgE-mediated disease, including asthma and severe food allergy. The molecule has recently entered phase 1 clinical trials. Specific treatments for cat allergy and peanut allergy will follow epsi-gam into the clinic. For more information on Tunitas Therapeutics, please visit the company's website at http://www.tunitastherapeutics.com.

Contact:

Nolan H. Sigal, M.D., Ph.D.
President & CEO
Tunitas Therapeutics, Inc.
(650) 887-4747
[email protected]

Joan Kureczka
Kureczka/Martin Associates
(415) 821 2413
[email protected]

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SOURCE Tunitas Therapeutics, Inc.