WATERTOWN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Lyndra Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company working to make daily pills a thing of the past with the first-ever ultra-long-acting, sustained release oral therapies, today announced the appointments of Abigail Jenkins as Chief Commercial and Business Officer, and Jacqueline Fernandes as Vice President of Data Compliance and Information Technology.
“We are pleased to be expanding Lyndra’s executive team with the appointment of two experienced and accomplished industry executives. Both women fill key positions at Lyndra as we continue to grow and position ourselves for the approval of five products by 2025,” said Dr. Patricia Hurter, Chief Executive Officer of Lyndra Therapeutics. “Abigail’s reputation for combining science, strategic planning and vision to build and lead successful commercial healthcare operations will be invaluable to the Company as Lyndra advances from the clinical to commercial stage with the initiation of our first pivotal trial of LYN-005 as a once-weekly oral treatment for schizophrenia later this year. Likewise, Jacqueline’s decades of experience creating strategic IT frameworks to ensure compliance, security and scalability across growing organizations will enable rapid and streamlined development across all aspects of the business.”
Abigail Jenkins, Chief Commercial and Business Officer
Ms. Jenkins brings to Lyndra over 20 years of experience as a commercial and business leader across growing public life sciences companies with a successful record of building customer-centric organizations that create value by delivering meaningful products to market. Most recently, Ms. Jenkins served as Senior Vice President and Business Unit Head of Vaccines at Emergent BioSolutions, Inc., where she oversaw the Company’s largest therapeutic division from discovery through commercialization. Prior to that, she held a series of executive and senior leadership roles at Aquinox Pharmaceuticals, Relypsa Inc. (now a Vifor Pharma Group Company) and Actavis Inc. (now part of AbbVie), as well as MedImmune Inc. (now part of AstraZeneca) and Pfizer. Ms. Jenkins holds a Master of Science degree in biotechnology and biotech business enterprise from The Johns Hopkins University, and a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and biology from Indiana University.
“I’m very excited to work alongside this passionate and driven team of healthcare pioneers working to fundamentally change the way people around the world take medicine,” said Ms. Jenkins. “I look forward to building the foundation for successful commercialization of Lyndra’s robust pipeline as well as forging innovative industry partnerships as the Company prepares for its next stage of corporate growth.”
Jacqueline Fernandes, Vice President of Data Compliance and Information Technology
Ms. Fernandes brings to Lyndra more than two decades of experience designing and implementing strategic and comprehensive data and IT compliance programs to support a wide range of complex legal, regulatory and compliance requirements at large public, private and state government organizations, including established biotech and biopharma companies. Previously, Ms. Fernandes served as Senior Director of Data Compliance and Chief Privacy Officer at Sarepta Therapeutics Inc., where her work led to significant increases in cross-functional data acquisition, use, protection, security and transparency to support the Company’s global operations. In addition, she previously served in senior-level roles at Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc., The State of Massachusetts, Department of Transportation, Intel and Comcast. She also ran her own independent consulting firm for several years. Ms. Fernandes holds a Master of Science in information security from Brandeis University and a Bachelor of Science in business administration from Northeastern University.
“Lyndra is poised for significant near- and long-term growth and transformation as the Company continues to advance its novel ultra-long-acting oral therapies,” said Ms. Fernandes. “I’m eager to contribute to this meaningful work by ensuring and enabling safe and compliant procedures that protect the business and its stakeholders.”
About Lyndra Therapeutics
Lyndra Therapeutics is pioneering the first-ever oral, ultra-long-acting, sustained release therapies, which have the potential to fundamentally change the way people take medicine by enabling patients to take a pill once a week rather than daily. The Company’s breakthrough Extended-Release Oral Capsule is designed to provide consistent drug levels for an entire week or as long as a month, from one, normal-sized capsule – something no oral therapy has ever achieved before. Lyndra’s robust pipeline is made up of therapies with established and well-known safety profiles across a number of disease areas in which non-adherence is known to be a significant driver of outcomes, including schizophrenia and other central nervous system diseases, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and opioid abuse disorder, among others. The Company is also committed to advancing its platform across new chemical entities and a variety of critical global and public health opportunities alongside partners such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the NIH. For more information, visit the Company’s website at www.lyndra.com.
