WATERTOWN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Forma Therapeutics, Inc. (“Forma”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on rare hematologic diseases and cancers, today announced the appointment of David N. Cook, Ph.D., to the leadership team as senior vice president and chief scientific officer. Dave is a scientist and entrepreneur who has held senior operating and management positions in the biotechnology industry for more than 25 years. In this new role, Dave will oversee the company’s biology, translational sciences, medicinal chemistry and DMPK and toxicology teams.
“I’m very pleased to officially welcome Dave to the Forma family,” said Frank Lee, chief executive officer of Forma. “In his recent consultant capacity, Dave’s tremendous background and individual contributions have been invaluable, and I’m confident his strategic, scientific approach will help us further our mission to transform the lives of patients with rare hematologic diseases and cancers.”
“Forma has built a rich pipeline of small molecule programs, and I’m delighted to be part of the talented team that’s advancing this work,” said Dave. “I look forward to collaborating and applying my scientific and drug discovery expertise to bring new therapeutics to patients who need them.”
Dave’s previous experiences – notably at Cerus Corporation where he worked in transfusion medicine and blood safety, as well as his work in the discovery and development of oncology drugs – resonate with Forma’s pipeline. Prior to joining Forma, Dave served as chief scientific officer for Seres Therapeutics. He played a key role in the strategy and fundraising in the microbiome field for Seres, and he was integral to the translation to the clinic of drugs for C. difficile, irritable bowel disease and immuno-oncology. Prior to Seres, he was the chief operating officer for The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), a global not-for-profit R&D organization whose mission is to develop a globally accessible HIV vaccine. Dave was also the founding CEO at Anza Therapeutics, a start-up company developing a novel microbial vaccine platform to induce cellular immune responses to fight or prevent cancer and chronic infections, among other previous roles. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College and his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.
About Forma Therapeutics
Forma Therapeutics is focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of transformative medicines for patients with rare hematologic diseases and cancers. A fully integrated biopharmaceutical company, Forma’s proprietary R&D engine combines deep biology insight, chemistry expertise and clinical development capabilities to create differentiated drug candidates focused on indications with high unmet need. Forma has delivered high-quality clinical candidates to its partners and generated a broad proprietary portfolio of programs, ranging from preclinical to pivotal-stage, with the potential to provide profound patient benefit. For more information, please visit www.FormaTherapeutics.com or follow us on Twitter @FORMAInc and LinkedIn.
