CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Omega Therapeutics™, a company pioneering a new category of genomic medicine through epigenomic programming, today announced the appointment of Dr. Roger Sawhney as Chief Financial Officer. Dr. Sawhney brings 25 years of financial and strategic expertise to Omega, with vast experience ranging from global investments in healthcare sectors to business and strategy development in the biopharma industry.
Mahesh Karande, President and Chief Executive Officer of Omega Therapeutics remarked, “The addition of Roger as Chief Financial Officer strengthens our leadership team and positions Omega for continued success in 2020 and beyond, particularly as we look to further developing our epigenomic programming platform, exploring partnerships, and readying our lead indications for clinical development in 2021. Roger’s stellar background, and breadth and depth of industry expertise, combined with his strategic and transactional experience are invaluable attributes, and I am proud to welcome him to the team.”
Most recently, Dr. Sawhney served at KKR & Co. as Director of its healthcare investment platform in the Americas, where his work focused on investments across private and growth equity in the healthcare sector. While at KKR & Co., he was responsible for deal sourcing, diligence, investing, corporate governance and portfolio value realization, and he ultimately helped lead and manage investments in over five portfolio companies across KKR’s healthcare platform.
Earlier, he held the role of Senior Vice President and Head of Corporate Strategy for Novartis AG, as well as Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Business Development for Outcome Health, a privately-funded leader in the digital health space. In these roles, Roger was progressively responsible for growth initiatives, M&A, business development and global strategic planning.
Dr. Sawhney commented, "Omega has a compelling story, breakthrough science and an ambitious mission, so I am excited to join Mahesh and the team in their efforts to deliver transformative genomic medicine to patients, forging a new future of disease management. Through pursuing strategic financial and operational initiatives, I aim to assist Omega in successfully capitalizing on opportunities and achieving its clinical, regulatory, and financial milestones."
“We are thrilled to announce that Roger has joined the Omega leadership team as CFO,” said Noubar Afeyan, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Flagship Pioneering and Co-founder and Chairman of the Board for Omega Therapeutics. “His impressive background bolsters Omega’s strategic position, which is especially relevant during these uncertain times in the global markets. I look forward to his contributions in helping Omega capitalize on opportunities in what is certain to be an impactful year for the company.”
Dr. Sawhney has also served as Partner with both Bain and Company and the Boston Consulting Group, where he led and managed numerous investments across the life sciences, med-tech and digital health sectors, as well as transformation engagements for the world’s leading global biopharma companies. He has particular depth in M&A, BD&L, portfolio strategy and growth strategy. He earned his M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School and also holds a BA in Economics from Stanford University.
About Omega Therapeutics
Omega Therapeutics is a genomic medicine company advancing novel engineered therapeutics, Omega’s Epigenomic Controllers, enabling controllable epigenomic programming into clinical development for a broad range of indications. These therapeutics deliver Precision Genomic Control™ by controlling Insulated Genomic Domains (IGDs), the fundamental structural and functional units of genomic regulation, by modulating single and multiple gene expression through epigenomic programming. IGDs encompass single or multiple genes and their associated regulatory elements, and are correlated with diverse diseases, including cancer, autoimmune, inflammatory, regenerative, metabolic, neurological conditions and rare diseases. Omega’s Epigenomic Controllers deliver the required potent and durable therapeutic effect by precisely modulating or tuning single or multiple genes, up or down, with high specificity to unleash the human genome’s innate capacity to cure disease without altering native genomic nucleic acid codes. Omega’s Epigenomic Controllers also allow repeat dosing with controllable durability.
Founded by Flagship Pioneering in 2017, with a long-term vision to create a programmable, epigenetic-based genomic medicine platform that would identify novel targets, as well as medicines, Omega’s epigenomic programming platform has identified and mapped IGDs and their structure and function in both healthy and diseased states across cell types. This scientific insight drives the discovery and development of Omega’s novel Epigenomic Controllers, intended for clinical development across a range of therapeutic indications. To learn more please visit www.omegatherapeutics.com.
