Press Release.
- Sanjay Keswani, MBBS, FRCP to join company as Chief Medical Officer bringing extensive experience in drug development and life sciences leadership
- Lynne Murray, Ph.D., MBA appointed as Chief Scientific Officer after leading MiroBio’s R&D efforts since October 2020
- Enhanced leadership team will support the clinical development of lead assets MB272 and MB151 and advance pipeline of checkpoint agonist antibodies designed to treat autoimmune disease
OXFORD, United Kingdom, March 8, 2022 – MiroBio, a biotechnology company advancing checkpoint agonist therapies to restore immune balance, today announced two key additions to its leadership team. Sanjay Keswani, MBBS has joined the company as Chief Medical Officer to lead clinical development activities and strategy, and Lynne Murray, Ph.D., MBA will assume the role of Chief Scientific Officer directing the advancement of MiroBio’s discovery platform.
“We are thrilled to have Sanjay and Lynne join MiroBio’s executive leadership team as we advance a potentially transformative therapeutic approach for patients suffering from autoimmune diseases,” said Dr. Carolin Barth, M.D., CEO of MiroBio. “MiroBio’s inhibitory receptor agonist approach represents a promising new mode of action for treating these complex diseases. With our enhanced leadership team, we look forward to moving our therapies into the clinic and delivering our ultimate goal of providing durable remission to patients with autoimmune diseases.”
Dr. Sanjay Keswani is an accomplished physician-scientist with broad R&D expertise in multiple therapeutic areas and is a former neurology faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Hospital as well as an elected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, United Kingdom. Dr. Keswani has held senior executive positions in the pharmaceutical industry, including at Roche, where he was Senior Vice President and Global Head of Neuroscience, Ophthalmology and Rare Diseases Research and Early Development, and most recently Annexon Biosciences, where he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. He has been instrumental in the development of multiple approved medicines, including Cymbalta, Aimovig, Emgality, Risdiplam and Faricimab. Dr. Keswani graduated in medicine at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and holds a First-class Honors degree from St. Mary’s Hospital, London in molecular immunology. He completed his residency in neurology at Johns Hopkins, where he also ran a R01-funded neuroimmunology research lab.
Dr. Murray has served as Senior Vice President of Research and Development for MiroBio since October 2020 and brings substantial experience in the discovery and development of pharmaceuticals from preclinical to Phase 2 in both large pharmaceutical and small biotech environments. Prior to joining MiroBio she served as Head of Regeneration at AstraZeneca’s early respiratory & immunology department. Over her tenure, she led multiple large and small molecule programs and gained significant business development experience in the partnering & strategy department at AZ. Before this, she was Director of Pharmacology at a U.S.-based biotech, Promedior and also held a research position at Janssen, Philadelphia after her postdoc at UCLA. Dr. Murray received her MBA from Judge Business School of the University of Cambridge and holds a Ph.D. in immunology and pathology from Imperial College London. She is an author of numerous publications and patents.
Miro Bio’s pipeline is built on 15 years of foundational research and focuses on targets with the greatest potential in autoimmunity. The company’s lead program, MB272, targets the immune receptor BTLA and will undergo clinical research in 2022. MiroBio’s PD-1 agonist program, MB151, is progressing in preclinical development with clinical plans being developed for 2023.
About Checkpoint Agonist Antibodies
MiroBio is creating a new class of therapies for autoimmune disease: Checkpoint agonist antibodies. These therapies are designed to precisely restore a balanced immune response and prevent the body from attacking its own cells. Checkpoint pathways are powerful regulators of immune cell function. Each has its own role in specific types of immune cells and differing activity in disease. By selectively activating, or agonizing, the appropriate checkpoint receptor, MiroBio’s therapies can deliver a highly potent inhibitory signal to overactive immune cells without being broadly immunosuppressive.
About MiroBio (www.mirobio.com)
MiroBio is a biotechnology company advancing a new class of precision therapies designed to address the immune imbalance that drives autoimmune disease. Its proprietary drug discovery platform, I-ReSToRE, comprehensively evaluates inhibitory receptors for therapeutic potential and designs checkpoint agonist antibody candidates that precisely modulate immune signalling to restore health. MiroBio’s pipeline includes several candidates against validated and novel targets with potential in a variety of autoimmune diseases. MiroBio is based in Oxford, U.K.
For more information about MiroBio contact:
Ten Bridge Communications
