CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- November 17, 2008 – Ascent Therapeutics, Inc. today announced
the completion of its senior management team with the appointment of Frederick Jones,
M.D. as President and Chief Executive Officer and Stephen Hunt, Ph.D. as Senior Vice
President, Discovery Research. Ascent is an emerging biopharmaceutical company
developing Pepducin® lipopeptides, a novel class of GPCR modulators to treat a variety of
serious illnesses. The Company has been funded with a $19 million Series A investment by
a world-class syndicate of healthcare venture investors including Novartis Option Fund,
Healthcare Ventures and TVM Capital.
“We are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Frederick Jones as President and CEO
to lead the strong Ascent team of experienced scientists and professionals,” commented
Lauren Silverman, Ph.D., managing director of the Novartis Option Fund and member of
the Ascent Board of Directors. “Ascent represents an exciting new paradigm for GPCR drug
discovery.”
“The Board is likewise pleased to have Dr. Stephen Hunt join the Ascent management
team,” added Chris Mirabelli, Ph.D., managing director of Healthcare Ventures and member
of the Ascent Board of Directors. “Stephen’s 15 years of experience at Pfizer in discovery
research will be instrumental as the Company selects the first Pepducin candidates for
clinical development in 2009.”
Ascent was founded based on Pepducin technology invented in the Tufts Medical Center
laboratories of Drs. Athan Kuliopulos and Lidija Covic. Pepducin technology has been the
subject of numerous peer-reviewed publications in journals including Nature Medicine,
Circulation, Journal of Biological Chemistry and Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences (Publication details can be found at the Ascent Therapeutics website
www.ascentrx.com). In 2006, the Pepducin technology won the TechConnect Emerging
Technology Award (TETA) in the Life Sciences category based on strength of intellectual
property, value proposition, and market impact. Tufts Medical Center has granted
worldwide exclusive license for Pepducin technology to Ascent.
“The platform character of Pepducin technology will enable Ascent to exploit multiple
opportunities for both internal and partnered drug development programs,” said Dr. Jens
Eckstein, general partner of TVM Capital and a member of the Ascent Board of Directors.
“I am excited to join the dedicated team at Ascent as we unlock the enormous untapped
potential of validated GPCR pharmaceutical targets that have been undruggable using
current standard approaches,” said Frederick Jones, M.D., President and Chief Executive
Officer of Ascent. “I look forward to working with our experienced team of scientists and
professionals and our dedicated investors, as we progress into clinical stage development.”
Joining Dr. Silverman, Dr. Eckstein and Dr. Mirabelli on the Board of Directors are Ascent
founders Michael Webb and Athan Kuliopulos, M.D.,Ph.D.
Ascent Senior Management Team
• Frederick Jones, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer previously led the
Pharma Business Unit for Devgen NV in Ghent, Belgium. Prior to that, he was Vice
President of Business Development at BioRexis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (now Pfizer)
from 2004 to 2007. Dr. Jones also held a number of positions of increasing
responsibility at Wyeth, most recently as Assistant Vice President of Licensing for
Global Business Development. He received his MBA from the Wharton School, and
both his M.D. and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.
• Stephen Hunt, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Discovery Research comes to
Ascent with over 15 years of drug discovery and development experience at Pfizer.
Most recently he was Executive Director and Head of RNAi Development at
Pfizer’s Research Technology Center where he led the company’s strategy
development and then implemented a large number of discovery and development
tactics to turn the promise of RNAi technology into practical pharmaceutical
projects. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh and was a NIH
Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Leroy Hood at the California Institute of
Technology.
• Thomas McMurry, Ph.D., founder and Vice President, Preclinical R&D was
previously Vice President of Research at EPIX Pharmaceuticals where he gained
experience in drug discovery and drove the expansion of the Company’s proprietary
technology platform into new areas. Dr. McMurry is a graduate of the Pennsylvania
State University and holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Michigan.
He performed his postdoctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
Ascent Scientific Advisory Board
• Thomas Sakmar, M.D., Richard M. and Isabel P. Furlaud Professor, Laboratory of
Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Rockefeller University
• Thomas Muir, Ph.D., Richard E. Salomon Family Professor, Selma and Lawrence
Ruben Laboratory of Synthetic Protein Chemistry, Rockefeller University
• Martin Beinborn, M.D., Co-Director, Molecular Pharmacology Research Center,
Molecular Cardiology Research Institute , Tufts Medical Center; as well as Assistant
Professor of Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine
• Athan Kuliopulos, M.D., Ph.D, Chairperson, Founder and CSO, Ascent
Therapeutics; Director, Hemostasis & Thrombosis Laboratory, Molecular Oncology
Research Institute, Tufts Medical Center; as well as Associate Professor of Medicine,
Tufts University School of Medicine
• Lidija Covic, Ph.D., Founder, Ascent Therapeutics; Co-Director, Hemostasis &
Thrombosis Laboratory, Molecular Oncology Research Institute, Tufts Medical
Center; as well as Assistant Professor of Medicine, Tufts University School of
Medicine
About Pepducin® Technology
Ascent’s proprietary Pepducin technology platform is being used to develop novel, small
lipopeptides to greatly expand the scope of G protein coupled receptor drug development.
Approximately 40% of currently approved drugs target GPCRs. However this large class of
well validated pharmaceutical targets has enormous untapped potential due to the difficulty
in selectively modulating the pharmacology of many of these membrane-bound receptors
using small molecules and biologics, traditional approaches that target the extracellular
ligand binding site. Pepducin technology comprises a short peptide derived from a GPCR
intracellular loop tethered to a hydrophobic moiety. This structure allows Pepducin
lipopeptides to anchor in the cell membrane lipid bilayer and target the GPCR/G protein
interface via a unique intracellular allosteric mechanism. Ascent’s Pepducin technology
platform represents an entirely new paradigm for disrupting GPCR signal transduction,
potentially transforming the scope of GPCR therapeutics for a much wider range of serious
illnesses.
About Ascent Therapeutics, Inc.
Ascent Therapeutics is an emerging biopharmaceutical company that is developing
Pepducin® lipopeptides, novel molecules that exquisitely target the intracellular domain of
G protein coupled receptors to allosterically modulate GPCR signaling. Pepducin
lipopeptides combine the specificity of peptides with improved pharmacokinetics,
dramatically expanding the scope of tractable GPCR targets. GPCRs are critically involved
in a wide variety of serious illnesses, including inflammation, cancer, CNS disorders and
cardiovascular disease. For more information, visit www.ascentrx.com.
Media Contact:
Douglas MacDougall or Jacqui Miller
(781) 235-3060
MacDougall Biomedical Communications