Seasoned life sciences expert brings further
global portfolio management and financial expertise from 20 years
at Merck & Co. Inc. to the PureTech board
Ms. Barber-Lui will also become chair of the
Audit Committee of the board
PureTech Health plc (Nasdaq: PRTC, LSE: PRTC) ("PureTech" or the
"Company"), a clinical-stage biotherapeutics company dedicated to
discovering, developing and commercializing highly differentiated
medicines for devastating diseases, today announced the appointment
of Sharon Barber-Lui, MBA, CPA, to its board of directors as a
non-executive director and as a member of the Audit Committee. She
previously led U.S. Oncology Portfolio Market Strategy, Operations
and Business Analytics at Merck & Co. Inc. During her two
decades at Merck & Co. Inc., Ms. Barber-Lui has held multiple
financial and operational positions of increasing responsibility,
including Chief Financial Officer of U.S. Oncology, Director of
U.S. Treasury Operations and regional Treasurer of Asia Pacific.
She currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Global Finance
at EQRx. Ms. Barber-Lui brings extensive experience in finance,
operations, portfolio management and commercialization to
PureTech’s board of industry, business and academic leaders.
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PureTech appointed Sharon Barber-Lui,
MBA, CPA to its board of directors as a non-executive director and
as a member of the Audit Committee. She previously led U.S.
Oncology Portfolio Strategy, Operations and Business Analytics at
Merck & Co. Inc. During her two decades at Merck, Ms.
Barber-Lui has held multiple financial and operational positions of
increasing responsibility, including Chief Financial Officer of
U.S. Oncology, Director of U.S. Treasury Operations and regional
Treasurer of Asia Pacific. She currently serves as the Senior Vice
President of Global Finance at EQRx. (Photo: Business Wire)
“Sharon has a track record of success and leadership spanning
diverse experiences across the life sciences industry, with
particular expertise in financial systems and governance. We are
very pleased to have her join PureTech’s board,” said Christopher
Viehbacher, Chair of PureTech’s Board of Directors. “On behalf of
the board, I welcome Sharon and look forward to her
contributions.”
“I am energized by PureTech’s unique model and approach to
creating new therapies for devastating diseases,” commented Ms.
Barber-Lui. “PureTech is a true pioneer, and I look forward to
joining the distinguished members of the board to help support
PureTech’s talented team in executing on the collective vision of
transforming patient care by giving life to science.”
Ms. Barber-Lui has more than 20 years of diverse experiences at
Fortune 50 and major public accountancies with strong life science
innovation, entrepreneurship and business transformation activity.
Since 2022, she has served as Senior Vice President of Global
Finance at EQRx, a new type of pharmaceutical company committed to
developing and delivering innovative medicines to patients at
radically lower prices. She also led Portfolio Market Strategy,
Operations and Business Analytics at Merck & Co. Inc.’s U.S.
Oncology business from 2019 through 2021, where she previously
served as Chief Financial Officer of U.S. Oncology from 2014 to
2018. That business portfolio included new, mature, co-developed
and co-commercialized products. Ms. Barber-Lui also held a number
of other financial and operational related roles throughout the
course of her 22 years at Merck & Co. Inc. Ms. Barber-Lui
received her MBA, marketing and corporate entrepreneurship and her
B.S. in accounting from Lehigh University.
On joining the board, Ms. Barber-Lui will become a member of the
board’s Audit Committee, and she will become chair of that
committee immediately following the Company’s announcement of its
2021 full-year financial results. At that time, Mr. Viehbacher will
step down from his role as chair of the board’s Audit Committee but
will remain a member of the committee. Dr Raju Kucherlapati and
Dame Marjorie Scardino will also continue as members of the Audit
Committee.
“We welcome Sharon’s contributions at a time when PureTech’s
pipeline and broader portfolio of differentiated medicines include
many advanced clinical and commercial-stage programs,” said Daphne
Zohar, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of PureTech. “Her
background and expertise will strongly complement our existing
board and bring additional perspective to our strategy of building
a leading biopharmaceutical company.”
Ms. Barber-Lui is independent for the purposes of the UK
Corporate Governance Code, and PureTech confirms that there is no
further information required to be disclosed pursuant to paragraph
9.6.13 of the U.K. Listing Rules.
PureTech’s Board of Directors
PureTech’s Board of Directors includes former executives of
major pharmaceutical companies, entrepreneurs, and award winning
academic and clinical leaders who leverage their expertise to
support our mission. Following the appointment of Ms. Barber-Lui,
the board of directors is comprised of the following members:
Daphne Zohar, Founder, Chief Executive
Officer and Director – Daphne Zohar is the Founder and Chief
Executive Officer of PureTech, and she has served as a member of
PureTech’s Board of Directors since the Company’s founding. She has
also served as the founding Chief Executive Officer for a number of
PureTech’s Founded Entities. A successful entrepreneur, Ms. Zohar
created PureTech, assembling a leading team to help implement her
vision for the Company, and was a key participant in fundraising,
business development and establishing the underlying programs and
platforms that have resulted in PureTech’s substantial
pipeline.
Chris Viehbacher, Board Chair – Chris
Viehbacher has served as a member of PureTech’s Board of Directors
since 2015 and as Chair since September 2019. He is the Managing
Partner of Gurnet Point Capital, a Boston based investment fund
associated with the Bertarelli family and has a $2 billion capital
allocation. He is the former Chief Executive Officer and member of
the Board of Directors of Sanofi and was also the Chair of the
Board of Genzyme in Boston.
Sharon Barber-Lui, MBA, CPA, Independent
Non-Executive Director – Sharon Barber-Lui has served as a
member of PureTech’s Board of Directors since 2022. She was
previously the Head of U.S. Oncology Portfolio Strategy, Operations
and Business Analytics at Merck & Co. Inc. During her two
decades at Merck, Ms. Barber-Lui held multiple financial and
operational positions, including Chief Financial Officer of U.S.
Oncology, Director of U.S. Treasury Operations and regional
Treasurer of Asia Pacific.
Bharatt Chowrira, PhD, JD, President and
Chief Business, Legal & Operating Officer and Director –
Bharatt Chowrira, PhD, JD, is the President and Chief Business,
Legal & Operating Officer of PureTech, and he has served as a
member of PureTech’s Board of Directors since 2021. Prior to
joining PureTech, Dr. Chowrira was the President of Synlogic, Inc.
He previously served as the Chief Operating Officer of Auspex
Pharmaceuticals Inc., until its acquisition by Teva
Pharmaceuticals, and he has held various leadership and management
positions across the biopharmaceutical industry.
Raju Kucherlapati, PhD, Independent
Non-Executive Director – Raju Kucherlapati, PhD, has served as
a member of PureTech’s Board of Directors since 2014. He is the
Paul C. Cabot Professor of Genetics and Professor of Medicine at
Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kucherlapati was a founder and formerly
a board member of Abgenix (acquired by Amgen for $2.2 billion),
Cell Genesys and Millennium Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Takeda for
$8.8 billion).
John LaMattina, PhD, Independent
Non-Executive Director – John LaMattina, PhD, has served as a
member of PureTech’s Board of Directors since 2009. Dr. LaMattina
was previously president of Pfizer Global Research and Development
and held positions of increasing responsibility during his 30-year
career at Pfizer.
Bob Langer, ScD, Co-Founder and
Non-Executive Director – Bob Langer, ScD, is a Co-founder of
PureTech and has served as a member of PureTech’s Board of
Directors since the Company’s founding. He has served as the David
H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT since 2005. He is one of 12
institute professors, which is the highest honor that can be
awarded to a faculty member at MIT. Dr. Langer has received over
220 major awards and is the most cited engineer in history.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Independent
Non-Executive Director – Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has served as a
member of PureTech’s Board of Directors since 2020. She is a
pioneering biotech entrepreneur, a healthcare visionary, a global
influencer and a passionate philanthropist. She is a pioneer of
India’s biotech industry and founder of Biocon.
Dame Marjorie Scardino, Senior Independent
Director – Dame Marjorie Scardino has served as a member of
PureTech’s Board of Directors since 2015. She served as Chief
Executive of The Economist for 12 years and was the Chief Executive
of Pearson plc, the world’s leading education company and the owner
of Penguin Books and The Financial Times Group. She served as
chairman of The MacArthur Foundation from 2012 to 2017, and later
became the Chairman of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine.
PureTech’s R&D Committee
PureTech’s R&D Committee works in close collaboration with
the board and PureTech’s network of scientific experts to drive our
distinctive R&D model for advancing scientific breakthroughs.
The Committee is comprised of board members Bob Langer, ScD, Raju
Kucherlapati, PhD, and John LaMattina, PhD, in addition to the
following members:
H. Robert Horvitz, PhD, Board Observer and
R&D Committee Chair – H. Robert Horvitz, PhD, is a Board
Observer and Chair of PureTech’s R&D Committee. He received the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and is the David H Koch
Professor of Biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an
investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, neurobiologist
(neurology) at Massachusetts General Hospital, a member of the MIT
McGovern Institute for Brain Research and the MIT Koch Institute
for Integrative Cancer Research. He is cofounder of multiple life
science companies, including Epizyme (EPZM), Mitobridge (acquired
by Astellas) and Idun Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Pfizer) and was
a member of the Scientific Advisor Board of the Novartis Institutes
for BioMedical Research.
Dennis Ausiello, MD, R&D Committee
Member – Dennis Ausiello, MD, is a member of PureTech’s R&D
Committee. He is the Jackson Distinguished Professor of Clinical
Medicine and was previously Director, Emeritus of the MD/PhD
Program at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Ausiello is Chairman of
Medicine, Emeritus and Director of the Center for Assessment
Technology and Continuous Health (CATCH) at Massachusetts General
Hospital (MGH). Dr. Ausiello served on the Board of Directors of
Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, where he was their former Lead
Director.
Bennett Shapiro, MD, Co-founder and
R&D Committee Member – Ben Shapiro, MD, is a Co-founder and
member of PureTech’s R&D Committee. As former Executive Vice
President at Merck Research Laboratories of Merck & Co. Inc.,
Dr. Shapiro initially led Worldwide Basic Research and was
responsible for all the basic and preclinical research activities
at Merck & Co. Inc. He later led Worldwide Licensing and
External Research and was responsible for Merck’s relationships
with the academic and industrial biomedical research community. His
leadership resulted in the discovery, development and registration
of approximately 25 drugs and vaccines.
About PureTech Health
PureTech is a clinical-stage biotherapeutics company dedicated
to discovering, developing and commercializing highly
differentiated medicines for devastating diseases, including
inflammatory, fibrotic and immunological conditions, intractable
cancers, lymphatic and gastrointestinal diseases and neurological
and neuropsychological disorders, among others. The Company has
created a broad and deep pipeline through the expertise of its
experienced research and development team and its extensive network
of scientists, clinicians and industry leaders. This pipeline,
which is being advanced both internally and through PureTech's
Founded Entities, is comprised of 25 therapeutics and therapeutic
candidates, including two that have received both U.S. FDA
clearance and European marketing authorization, as of the date of
PureTech's most recently filed Half Year Report and corresponding
Form 6-K. All of the underlying programs and platforms that
resulted in this pipeline of therapeutic candidates were initially
identified or discovered and then advanced by the PureTech team
through key validation points based on the Company's unique
insights into the biology of the brain, immune and gut, or BIG,
systems and the interface between those systems, referred to as the
BIG Axis.
For more information, visit www.puretechhealth.com or connect
with us on Twitter @puretechh.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains statements that are or may be
forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements contained
in this press release that do not relate to matters of historical
fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including
without limitation those statements that relate to expectations
regarding the addition of Ms. Barber-Liu to our board of directors
and her role with the board and the board’s Audit Committee, and
PureTech’s future prospects, development plans and strategies. The
forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and
are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other
important factors that could cause actual results, performance and
achievements to differ materially from current expectations,
including, but not limited to, those risks, uncertainties and other
important factors described under the caption "Risk Factors" in our
Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2020
filed with the SEC and in our other regulatory filings. These
forward-looking statements are based on assumptions regarding the
present and future business strategies of the Company and the
environment in which it will operate in the future. Each
forward-looking statement speaks only as at the date of this press
release. Except as required by law and regulatory requirements, we
disclaim any obligation to update or revise these forward-looking
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events
or otherwise.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220324005147/en/
PureTech Public Relations
publicrelations@puretechhealth.com
Investor Relations IR@puretechhealth.com
EU Media Ben Atwell, Rob Winder +44 (0) 20 3727 1000
ben.atwell@FTIconsulting.com
U.S. Media Nichole Sarkis +1 774 278 8273
nichole@tenbridgecommunications.com
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