Myricx Pharma announces senior team expansion with appointment of CMO and heads of biology and bioinformatics

Published: Feb 22, 2022

• Zahid Bashir MB BS, MSc joins as Chief Medical Officer, bringing significant clinical haematology and oncology experience, having led the development and launch of innovative medicines including Kite Pharma's first CAR-T clinical trial
• Richard Rutter, PhD joins as Head of Biology, with a track record of progressing drugs from inception to the clinic, he brings a breadth of drug discovery and leadership experience
• Francesco Falciani, PhD joins as Head of Bioinformatics, bringing a wealth of experience on novel computational approaches in systems biology gained from pioneering research across academia and industry

Stevenage, UK, February 22 2022 - Myricx Pharma (‘Myricx’), a drug discovery company focused on developing small molecule inhibitors that selectively target the human N-myristoyltransferases (NMT) in cancer, today announces the expansion of its senior team with the appointments of Zahid Bashir as Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Richard Rutter as Head of Biology and Francesco Falciani as Head of Bioinformatics.

With an initial focus in multiple oncology indications, Myricx is developing a pipeline of novel proprietary inhibitors of human N-myristoyltransferases (NMT). The new appointments reflect the company’s progress as it advances its lead programmes through preclinical development and IND-enabling studies.

Zahid Bashir, MB BS, MSc, is a highly experienced clinical development consultant in the fields of oncology and haematology. He brings over 15 years’ clinical and drug development experience to Myricx. Recognised for his success in planning, leading and executing clinical and drug development programmes for pharma and biotech companies, his relevant responsibilities include for Roche, GSK, Kite Pharma, BMS and AstraZeneca. He has gained extensive experience throughout all phases of clinical development and successfully brought multiple novel drugs including cell and gene therapy products to cancer patients. Full bio HERE.

Richard Rutter, PhD is an experienced pharmacologist and drug discovery biologist with over 20 years in the pharma and biotech industries. He was a Director of Biology at the GlaxoSmithKline Neurodegeneration Research Unit in Singapore and a member of the R&D leadership team managing a portfolio of preclinical programs from early target identification through to candidate nomination. He has also held the role of CSO at Auspherix Ltd and is a co-founder of NRG Therapeutics. Full bio HERE.

Francesco Falciani, PhD is a specialist in developing novel computational approaches in systems biology and the application of these techniques to complex biological systems. He has over 30 years of experience working in both academia and industry. He holds an Honorary Professorship in integrative Systems Biology at the University of Liverpool, where until 2021 he served as a Director of the University’s Computational Biology facility. Before establishing his career in academia, Francesco worked at GlaxoWellcome as Bioinformatics Group Leader and was Head of Target Discovery at Lorantis Ltd. Full bio HERE.

Welcoming the new senior team members to the company Roberto Solari, PhD, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder said:

“We are delighted to welcome Zahid, Richard and Francesco to the Myricx leadership team. As we progress our novel NMT inhibitors towards IND enabling studies and expand our proprietary pipeline of targeted cancer therapies for precision medicine, their collective skills and experiences will be invaluable in strengthening our clinical development, biology and bioinformatics capabilities.”

Myricx is a start-up from two of the UK’s leading biomedical research organisations and is pursuing NMT inhibition in a variety of indications with an initial focus in oncology. The company is exploiting novel breakthrough discoveries that are backed up with very high quality chemistry. Myricx identified that inhibition of NMT results in specific cancer cell killing via an unexpected and unique mechanism. The Company has discovered that its NMT inhibitors are proving to be highly effective in the treatment of MYC-driven cancer models.

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For Further information, please contact:

At the Company
Dr Roberto Solari, CEO, Myricx Pharma, info@myricxpharma.com

Media Enquiries
Sue Charles, Charles Consultants, sue@charles-consultants.com , +44 (0)7986 726585