PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fore Biotherapeutics, a precision oncology company focused on providing people with unaddressed cancer mutations new hope by connecting them with hyper-targeted medicines using its proprietary functional genomics platform, today announced the appointment of Kim Blackwell, M.D., as a member of the Board of Directors and R&D/Science Chair, and Sujit Basu, Ph.D., as Senior Vice President of Manufacturing and Technical Operations.
Dr. Blackwell is currently the Chief Medical Officer of Tempus Labs, a technology company applying artificial intelligence to advance precision medicine across life sciences. Prior to Tempus, she worked at Eli Lilly, where she was Vice President of Early Phase Oncology and Immuno-oncology. Before joining the drug development industry, Dr. Blackwell was a Professor of Medicine and Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at Duke University, where she directed the Women’s Cancer Program, Strategic Collaborations, and the Precision Medicine Initiative for the Duke Cancer Institute. She also served as the principal or co-principal investigator for over 50 cancer clinical trials and co-founded the radiotherapeutics company Cereius. Dr. Blackwell was also included in TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World for 2013. She received her M.D. from Mayo Clinic Medical School, followed by training in internal medicine and hematology-oncology at Duke University.
Dr. Blackwell added, “Fore’s unique ability to match underlying cancer drivers to clinical-stage therapeutics using functional genomics has the potential to enable a transformative shift in how we accelerate therapeutic development to be more precisely directed at specific mutations and patients who will benefit from the therapies. I am excited to support and guide this talented team as they continue to advance this game-changing approach to oncology drug development.”
Dr. Basu joins Fore from Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, where he was a member of the oncology development leadership team and led development of combination products, diagnostics and personalized health solutions. He also brings a strong biotech background building teams and operations from the ground up, and bringing numerous products to market over an illustrious career. He brings deep experience in pharmaceutical development and technical operations to his new role where he will be integral in overseeing global manufacturing operations across multiple assets as Fore grows and expands its pipeline.
“I am delighted to join Fore’s leadership team at this pivotal time in the company’s growth,” Dr. Basu said. “Throughout my career, I’ve led and observed firsthand the importance of building agile and high performing teams who can rise up to the opportunities and challenges inherent in the process of bringing novel treatments from bench to bedside. It is an honor to join Fore on their mission to advance multiple novel oncology candidates through clinical development to ultimately increase the options available for people with unaddressed cancer mutations.”
Dr. Basu most recently served as Vice President, Pharmaceutical Sciences, R&D at Takeda and previously worked at Shire as Vice President, Pharmaceutical Development, Technical Operations, where he supervised product development and clinical manufacturing. Prior to Shire, Dr. Basu served as Vice President at Dicerna Pharmaceuticals and has also held positions in chemistry, manufacturing & controls (CMC) at Altus Pharmaceuticals, Alkermes, Inc. and Sarabhai Chemicals, A.S.E. Ltd. He holds a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Southern California.
“We are continuing to make strides at Fore toward becoming a global leader in precision oncology. Building a highly diverse and globally respected board and executive management team with varied perspectives and experience is a critical step towards delivering on our goal of providing transformative therapies to people with difficult-to-treat cancers, using a novel and industry-defining functional genomics approach,” said Usama Malik, Chief Executive Officer of Fore Biotherapeutics. “I am thrilled to announced that the venerable Dr. Kim Blackwell will be joining our Board of Directors to provide essential guidance on our unique functional genomics and drug development approach. I am also pleased to announce the appointment of Sujit to lead manufacturing and technical operations as we advance the ongoing clinical trial of our next-generation BRAF asset, FORE8394, and continue to bring other assets into our clinical-stage pipeline. During this important time in Fore Bio’s evolution, we remain deeply committed to driving breakthrough progress in precision oncology drug development across the entire field.”
About Fore Biotherapeutics
As a leader in precision oncology, Fore Biotherapeutics provides patients with unaddressed cancer mutations new hope by connecting them with hyper-targeted medicines. Fore’s integrated functional genomics and machine learning capabilities, known as Foresight, are elucidating disease biology in competitively distinct and unparalleled ways that allow us to uniquely identify clinical-stage assets for people with few to no therapeutic alternatives. Fore is advancing its lead program, FORE8394, to treat both V600 and non-V600 BRAF mutations and continues to refine its clinical approach to serve more patient populations with difficult-to-treat mutations across oncogenes. For more information, please visit www.fore.bio or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
