CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 13, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Intellia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTLA ), a leading genome editing company focused on developing potentially curative therapeutics using CRISPR/Cas9 technology, has appointed Graeme Bell as its Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Bell succeeds Sapna Srivastava, Ph.D., who is transitioning to a senior advisory role within Intellia.
Mr. Bell joins Intellia from his role as Chief Financial Officer at Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company acquired by Pfizer, Inc. in June 2016. At Anacor, he led the finance, human resources, business development, IT, and facilities functions. Prior to Anacor, Mr. Bell spent more than 20 years at Merck & Co, Inc., where he held numerous finance and accounting senior-level positions including: CFO of U.S. operations, Controller, Global Pharmaceutical Franchises, CFO United Kingdom subsidiary, and head of investor relations. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Management Accountants with an MBA from the University of Durham, UK.
Mr. Bell will relocate to Intellia’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, overseeing all financial functions including financial planning and analysis, financial reporting, treasury, tax, accounting, and finance. Additionally, Mr. Bell will be responsible for investor relations.
Dr. Srivastava has decided to transition from the Chief Financial and Strategy Officer role to a senior advisor primarily due to her personal commitments in New York City. Dr. Srivastava joined Intellia in April 2015, and played an integral role in helping start up Intellia’s financial operations and strategic direction, the Series B private funding, and the initial public offering. Dr. Srivastava is committed to ensuring a smooth transition of her responsibilities to Mr. Bell. At the conclusion of her advisory role, Dr. Srivastava will transition from Intellia.
“I want to thank Sapna for her significant contributions to ensuring that Intellia’s business strategy and public offering were successful,” said Chief Executive Officer and Founder Nessan Bermingham, Ph.D. “We welcome Graeme to his new role as he joins us for the next phase of growth in our company. We are excited about his extensive financial and operational experience and existing relationships with the investment community.”
About Intellia Therapeutics
Intellia Therapeutics is a leading genome editing company, focused on the development of proprietary, potentially curative therapeutics using the CRISPR/Cas9 system. Intellia believes the CRISPR/Cas9 technology has the potential to transform medicine by permanently editing disease-associated genes in the human body with a single treatment course. Our combination of deep scientific, technical and clinical development experience, along with our leading intellectual property portfolio, puts us in a unique position to unlock broad therapeutic applications of the CRISPR/Cas9 technology and create a new class of therapeutic products. Learn more about Intellia Therapeutics and CRISPR/Cas9 at intelliatx.com ; Follow us on Twitter @intelliatweets.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our growth as a company and the anticipated contribution of executives to our operations and progress. Any forward-looking statements in this press release are based on management's current expectations of future events and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risk that any one or more of our product candidates will not be successfully developed and commercialized, the risk of cessation or delay of any of the ongoing or planned clinical trials and/or our development of our product candidates, the risk that the results of previously conducted studies involving similar product candidates will not be repeated or observed in ongoing or future studies involving current product candidates, the risk that our collaboration with Novartis or Regeneron will not continue or will not be successful, risks related to the competitive landscape, and risks related to our ability to protect and maintain our intellectual property position. For a discussion of other risks and uncertainties, and other important factors, any of which could cause our actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see the section entitled "Risk Factors" in our most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as discussions of potential risks, uncertainties, and other important factors in our subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All information in this press release is as of the date of the release, and Intellia Therapeutics undertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law.
Intellia Contacts: Media: Jennifer Mound Smoter Chief External Affairs & Communications Officer +1 857-706-1071 jenn.smoter@intelliatx.com Investors: John Graziano Trout Group + 1 646-378-2942 jgraziano@troutgroup.com Chad Rubin Trout Group + 1 646-378-2947 crubin@troutgroup.com
