CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vor Biopharma, an oncology company pioneering engineered hematopoietic stem cells (eHSCs) for the treatment of cancer, today announced the appointment of Daniella Beckman to its Board of Directors. The appointment of Ms. Beckman, an experienced biotech finance leader who currently serves as Chief Financial Officer at Tango Therapeutics, follows the hiring of Christopher Slapak, MD, as Chief Medical Officer and the completion of a $110 million Series B financing round.
“Daniella is a fantastic addition to our Board of Directors and we are honored to have her join at this important time for our company,” said Robert Ang, MBBS, MBA, Vor’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Her expertise in financial strategy and operations will be of great value to us as we leverage our recent Series B funding round to further advance our lead product candidate VOR33 towards clinical trials and continue to build out our portfolio.”
Ms. Beckman joins Vor with deep financial and operational experience across the biotechnology industry, having worked with both private and publicly traded companies throughout her career. At Tango Therapeutics, Ms. Beckman oversees finance, investor relations, and business development. Prior to joining Tango, Ms. Beckman was a consultant to early-stage biotechnology companies, leading financial activities and building companies’ financial infrastructures. She also served as Interim Chief Financial Officer for Neon Therapeutics. Previously, Ms. Beckman was Chief Financial Officer of Idenix Pharmaceuticals, where she was responsible for finance, investor relations, and IT until the company was acquired by Merck in 2014. Earlier in her career, she held various finance positions at Coley Pharmaceuticals, Biogen Idec, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Ms. Beckman received her BA in business administration and accounting from Boston University and is a Certified Public Accountant in Massachusetts. In addition to Vor, Ms. Beckman also serves on the Board of Directors of Translate Bio as Chair of the Audit and the Nomination and Governance Committees.
“The Series B financing is testament to the potential for eHSCs to improve the treatment paradigm for patients with blood cancers such as acute myeloid leukemia,” Ms. Beckman said. “I am looking forward to working with and supporting Vor as the company continues to innovate to address cancer patients in need.”
About Vor Biopharma
Vor Biopharma aims to transform the lives of cancer patients by pioneering engineered hematopoietic stem cell (eHSC) therapies. By removing biologically redundant proteins from eHSCs, these cells become inherently invulnerable to complementary targeted therapies while tumor cells are left susceptible, thereby unleashing the potential of targeted therapies to benefit cancer patients in need.
Vor’s platform could be used to potentially change the treatment paradigm of both hematopoietic stem cell transplants and targeted therapies, such as antibody drug conjugates, bispecific antibodies and CAR-T cell treatments.
Vor is based in Cambridge, Mass. and has a broad intellectual property base, including in-licenses from Columbia University, where foundational work was conducted by inventor and Vor Scientific Board Chair Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, DPhil.
About VOR33
Vor’s lead product candidate, VOR33, consists of engineered hematopoietic stem cells (eHSCs) that lack the protein CD33. Once these cells are transplanted into a cancer patient, we believe that CD33 will become a far more cancer-specific target, potentially avoiding toxicity to the normal blood and bone marrow associated with CD33-targeted therapies. Vor aims to improve the therapeutic window and effectiveness of CD33-targeted therapies, thereby potentially broadening the clinical benefit to patients suffering from acute myeloid leukemia.
