iBio Expands Executive Leadership Team with Appointment of Kristi Sarno as Senior Vice President of Business Development
13 August 2024 - 6:30AM
iBio, Inc. (NYSEA:IBIO), an AI-driven innovator of precision
antibody immunotherapies, announced today the appointment of Kristi
Sarno as senior vice president, business development. Ms. Sarno
brings more than 25 years of business development and strategic
experience in the life sciences industry to iBio and will play a
key role on the leadership team in establishing the company’s
corporate strategy and leading business development activities,
including overseeing search and evaluation and transaction
execution.
Before joining iBio, Ms. Sarno held key
positions in business development, strategic alliance, program
management and research at leading biotech companies including
Pfenex Inc. (acquired by Ligand Pharmaceuticals), Latham Biopharm
Group (acquired by Sia Partners), and Crucell (acquired by Johnson
& Johnson). Most recently she served as the vice president of
business development and corporate strategy at Homology Medicines,
where she led partnering discussions, played an instrumental role
in complex deal-making processes bringing over $130M to the
company, and provided strategic input for decisions that supported
its mission to cure rare diseases.
“Kristi’s extensive experience in building
successful partnerships will be invaluable to iBio as we look to
expand our pipeline into obesity and metabolic therapeutics and
plan to establish collaborations with pharmaceutical companies
seeking to leverage our AI platform for discovering and developing
antibodies against challenging drug targets,” said Martin Brenner,
Ph.D., DVM, CEO and Chief Scientific Officer. “We’re excited to
welcome Kristi to our team and eagerly anticipate her
contributions.”
iBio also today announced the company has
granted Ms. Sarno options to purchase 15,000 shares of its common
stock as inducement awards outside the company’s 2023 Omnibus
Incentive Plan. The grant was approved by the Compensation
Committee and was made as an inducement material to the employee
entering into employment. The grant was made in reliance on the
employment inducement exception to shareholder approval
provided under the NYSE American Company Guide, Section
711(a), which requires public announcement of inducement
awards.
The option award has an exercise price of $1.81
per share, the closing price of the company’s common stock on
August 8, 2024, the grant date, and has a ten-year term. The option
will vest 25% on the one-year anniversary of the date of grant and
after one year following the grant date, 6.25% of the options
granted will vest for each additional 3 months of employment
provided Ms. Sarno remains employed by the company through the
applicable vesting dates. These inducement awards also provide for
accelerated vesting in connection with a change in control of the
company or certain involuntary terminations of Ms. Sarno’s
employment.
About iBio, Inc.
iBio is an AI-driven innovator that develops
next-generation biopharmaceuticals using computational biology and
3D-modeling of subdominant and conformational epitopes,
prospectively enabling the discovery of new antibody treatments for
hard-to-target cancers, and other diseases. iBio’s mission is to
decrease drug failures, shorten drug development timelines, and
open up new frontiers against the most promising targets. For more
information, visit www.ibioinc.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Any statements contained in this press release
about future expectations, plans, and prospects, as well as any
other statements regarding matters that are not historical facts,
may constitute “forward-looking statements.” These statements
include statements regarding the Company continuing to grow its
pipeline and secure collaborations with pharma companies who need
assistance discovering and developing hard-to-drug targets with our
machine learning and AI platform and the contributions to be made
by Ms. Sarno. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,”
“could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,”
“potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “target,” “will,”
“would” and similar expressions are intended to identify
forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking
statements contain these identifying words. Actual results may
differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking
statements as a result of various important factors, including the
uncertainties related to the ability of the Company to grow its
pipeline and secure collaborations with pharma companies and the
contributions to be made by Ms. Sarno, and the risk factors
described in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year
ended June 30, 2023, and the Company’s subsequent filings with the
SEC, including subsequent periodic reports on Quarterly Reports on
Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. Any forward-looking
statements contained in this press release speak only as of the
date hereof and, except as required by federal securities laws,
iBio, Inc. specifically disclaims any obligation to update any
forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information,
future events, or otherwise.
Contacts: iBio, Inc. Investor
Relations ir@ibioinc.com
Susan Thomas iBio, Inc. Media
Relationssusan.thomas@ibioinc.com
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