PRESS RELEASE
15 September 2021
Saniona (OMX: SANION), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on rare diseases, today announced the appointment of Wendy Dwyer as Chief Business Officer. Dwyer has more than 20 years of experience in business development, licensing, and mergers and acquisitions, most recently serving as Chief Business Officer for Surface Oncology Inc., where she played a key role insecuring an $815 million license agreement with $85 million upfront for a preclinical immuno-oncology asset.
Rami Levin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Saniona, commented, "Saniona's strategy is to independently develop and commercialize our proprietary molecules for rare diseases, as we believe this approach can maximize long-term value. In parallel, we are actively evaluating various business development opportunities as a significant source of non-dilutive capital to continue to help fund our operations. Wendy's proven dealmaking abilities will be a critical part of securing such transactions."
Dwyer brings to Saniona extensive experience in licensing, collaboration agreements, mergers & acquisitions, strategic planning and corporate leadership. As Chief Business Officer at Surface Oncology, in addition to securing the transformative $815 million deal, she negotiated multiple highly strategic collaborative partnerships and served as a member of the executive leadership team. Previously, Dwyer served as Chief Business Officer at Portal Instruments Inc., where she secured a key device partnership with a large pharmaceutical company. Prior to that, she served as Vice President, Corporate Business Development with Ipsen Bioscience Inc., where she managed the acquisition of multiple marketed and late-stage products to build the company's U.S. and Canadian footprint. Dwyer also previously held senior business development positions at AstraZeneca plc, Antigenics Inc. (now Agenus Inc.), Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., and Indevus Pharmaceuticals Inc. Dwyer earned her master's degree in business administration from Lesley University and her bachelor's degree in psychology from Endicott College.
"Saniona has developed an impressive pipeline of assets, including Tesomet and multiple programs emerging from the ion channel drug discovery engine. With Saniona's focus on rare diseases, I believe there is significant value in potentially outlicensing or partnering some of these assets, and I look forward to developing strategies to unlock this value," Dwyer said.
Dwyer will be based in the U.S. She will serve on Saniona's executive committee and will report to President and CEO Rami Levin.
For more information, please contact
Trista Morrison, Chief Communications Officer, Saniona. Office: + 1
The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 14:00 CEST on 15 September 2021.
About Saniona
Saniona is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing innovative therapies for patients suffering from rare diseases for which there are a lack of available treatment options. The company's lead product candidate, Tesomet, is in mid-stage clinical trials for hypothalamic obesity and Prader-Willi syndrome, serious rare disorders characterized by severe weight gain, disturbances of metabolic functions and uncontrollable hunger. Saniona has developed a proprietary ion channel drug discovery engine anchored by IONBASE, a database of more than 130,000 ion channel modulators, of which more than 20,000 are Saniona's proprietary compounds. Through its ion channel expertise, Saniona is advancing two wholly-owned ion channel modulators, SAN711 and SAN903. SAN711 is in a Phase 1 clinical trial and may be applicable in the treatment of rare neuropathic disorders, and SAN903 is in preclinical development for rare inflammatory, fibrotic and hematological disorders. Led by an experienced scientific and operational team, Saniona has an established research organization in the Copenhagen area, Denmark, and a corporate office in the Boston, Massachusetts area, U.S. The company's shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm Small Cap.
Attachment
- CBO press release 09.15.21 (https://ml-eu.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/7b397dda-151c-4d7a-b316-05de1629070c)
