CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nimbus Therapeutics, a biotechnology company designing breakthrough medicines through structure-based drug discovery and development, announced the expansion of its development team with the appointment of accomplished professionals in three key development positions: Avinash Phadke, Ph.D., joins Nimbus as Vice President of CMC; Bhaskar Srivastava, M.D., Ph.D., joins as Vice President of Early Clinical Development; and Ajay K. Upadhyay joins as Vice President of Clinical Operations.
“We have begun assembling a world-class development team here at Nimbus. The appointments of Avinash, Bhaskar, and Ajay are central to our growing development capabilities, and enable Nimbus to progress its advancing portfolio through clinical investigation in multiple indications and disease settings,” said Annie C. Chen, M.D., MPH, Nimbus’ Chief Medical Officer and President of Nimbus’ TYK2 subsidiary. “In the near term, in addition to advancing our allosteric tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2) inhibitor toward Phase 2 testing, we also plan to initiate clinical testing for our highly selective and potent hematopoietic progenitor kinase 1 (HPK1) inhibitor later this year. Nimbus’ deepened development focus, alongside our well-known prowess in small molecule drug discovery, position us to grow and diversify our pipeline in exciting ways in the years to come.”
Dr. Phadke, Nimbus’ Vice President of CMC, joins from Achillion Pharmaceuticals where he held numerous roles of increasing responsibility in chemistry and CMC over his 18-year tenure, most recently as Vice President, Head of CMC. In that role Dr. Phadke developed manufacturing processes for and oversaw the manufacturing of eight small molecule investigational therapeutics across all stages of clinical development scale-up. Dr. Phadke holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Pune, an M.S. in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, and a B.Sc. in chemistry from Savitribai Phule Pune University.
Dr. Srivastava, Nimbus’ Vice President of Early Clinical Development, served most recently as Senior Director, Early Development Translational Science and Medicine in Immunology at the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. In that role he led a team responsible for strategy, design, and execution of early-phase clinical immunology programs. Dr. Srivastava’s previous roles at Janssen included Director of Early Development and Translational Medicine, Immunology, and Director of Medical Affairs in Dermatology. Prior to Janssen, Dr. Srivastava was a practicing dermatologist. He holds an A.B. in biochemical sciences from Harvard University and an M.D. and Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
Mr. Upadhyay, Nimbus’ Vice President of Clinical Operations, has held numerous positions across drug development, most recently as president of the consulting firm October Global Solutions Inc. Previously, Mr. Upadhyay served in the Medical Affairs, Americas leadership team at Astellas Pharma, first in the role of Senior Director of Clinical Studies and later as Executive Director of Clinical/Outcomes Sciences. Before Astellas, Mr. Upadhyay was at GlaxoSmithKline for nine years, where he held roles of ascending responsibility in the Oncology R&D Unit and oversaw teams managing the operational implementation of regional and global clinical trials in development and medical affairs across the portfolio. Mr. Upadhyay holds a B.S. in pharmacology and toxicology from Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and an M.S. in Quality Assurance/Regulatory Affairs from Temple University.
About Nimbus Therapeutics
Nimbus Therapeutics designs breakthrough medicines. Utilizing its powerful structure-based drug discovery engine, Nimbus designs potent and selective small molecule compounds targeting proteins that are known to be fundamental drivers of pathology in highly prevalent human diseases and which have proven difficult for other drug makers to tackle. The company’s LLC/subsidiary architecture enables diverse and synergistic partnerships to deliver breakthrough medicines. Nimbus is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. www.nimbustx.com
