CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BIND Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIND), a clinical-stage nanomedicine platform company developing targeted and programmable therapeutics called AccurinsTM, today announced the appointment of Hagop Youssoufian, M.Sc., M.D., as Chief Medical Officer. In this position, Dr. Youssoufian will be responsible for overseeing the clinical development and operations of BIND's internal pipeline. Edward Schnipper, M.D., who has been serving as interim CMO since January 2014, will continue in an advisory role.
"In particular, I am excited to advance BIND-014, which not only continues to demonstrate potential in a number of solid tumor indications but also validates the AccurinTM platform. Additionally, the pipeline under development represents potential breakthrough cancer treatments for patients' with significant unmet medical needs."
"Dr. Youssoufian has an impressive track record of getting important new cancer treatments approved, including blockbuster products such as Erbitux, Taxotere and Cyramza," said Scott Minick, President and CEO of BIND. "His deep oncology-focused drug development experience, which includes playing a key role in the development and regulatory approval of some of the most well-known cancer therapies on the market, will be valuable to BIND as we continue to expand and accelerate our product pipeline, including BIND-014, which is currently in Phase 2 clinical development for multiple solid tumor indications."
"I believe the Accurin technology the BIND team has developed holds tremendous potential for patients, and I see a significant opportunity at BIND to help advance important new anti-cancer agents," said Dr. Youssoufian. "In particular, I am excited to advance BIND-014, which not only continues to demonstrate potential in a number of solid tumor indications but also validates the AccurinTM platform. Additionally, the pipeline under development represents potential breakthrough cancer treatments for patients' with significant unmet medical needs."
The Company also announced the departure of Dr. Jeff Hrkach, who joined BIND in 2007 and most recently served as Chief Technology Officer. Dr. Hrkach is leaving at the end of November to pursue other opportunities. Jeff has agreed to continue his involvement with BIND as a member of its Scientific Advisory Board.
"Jeff was instrumental in translating the academic technology we licensed from MIT and Harvard into the robust commercial scale platform that it is today and building a very strong scientific team that is the foundation of BIND. I want to thank him for his many important contributions over the last seven years," continued Minick. "The entire organization wishes Jeff continued success in his next endeavor and we look forward to continuing to work with Jeff on our Scientific Advisory Board."
Dr. Youssoufian has more than 25 years of global, oncology-focused, clinical research and medical experience. Prior to joining BIND, Dr. Youssoufian served as Executive Vice President of Research and Development at Progenics Pharmaceuticals with responsibility for functions including medical affairs, drug safety, regulatory affairs and manufacturing. Dr. Youssoufian was previously President of Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer at Ziopharm Oncology. Prior to Ziopharm, Dr. Youssoufian held senior medical and R&D leadership positions of increasing responsibility at Lilly, Imclone Systems, Sanofi Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Before joining industry, Dr. Youssoufian held a number of academic appointments focused on medical genetics and internal medicine including at the Baylor College of Medicine and at Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Youssoufian has published numerous manuscripts and book chapters on human genetics and clinical research in oncology, and has been the recipient of honors that include the Hearst Endowment, Leukemia Society Translational Research Award, Burroughs Wellcome Clinical Scientist Award, and election to the American Society for Clinical Investigation. Dr. Youssoufian received his M.Sc. and M.D. in 1983 from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and a B.S. in 1978 from Boston College. After training in internal medicine at Cleveland Clinic and Johns Hopkins, he completed fellowships in clinical genetics at Johns Hopkins and in hematology-oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and was a visiting scientist at the Whitehead Institute at MIT.
About BIND Therapeutics
BIND Therapeutics is a clinical-stage nanomedicine platform company developing Accurins, its novel targeted therapeutics. BIND is leveraging its Medicinal Nanoengineering® platform to develop a pipeline of Accurins, initially in oncology, as well as Accurins in collaboration with biopharmaceutical companies. BIND's lead drug candidate, BIND-014, is an Accurin that targets PSMA and contains docetaxel, a clinically-validated and widely used anti-cancer agent. BIND-014 is currently in Phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer and metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer.
BIND has announced ongoing collaborations with Pfizer Inc., AstraZeneca AB and F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. to develop Accurins based on their proprietary therapeutic payloads and targeting ligands. BIND's platform originated from the pioneering nanotechnology research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School of BIND's scientific founders Dr. Robert Langer and Dr. Omid Farokhzad. For more information, please visit the Company's web site at www.bindtherapeutics.com.
Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimer
This press release contains 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 statements regarding Dr. Youssoufian's anticipated contributions to BIND; the advancement of BIND-014; the potential of our development pipeline; and Dr. Hrkach's participation on our Scientific Advisory Board.
These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the following: the fact that the Company has incurred significant losses since its inception and expects to incur losses for the foreseeable future; the Company's need for additional funding, which may not be available; raising additional capital may cause dilution to its stockholders or require it to relinquish rights to its technologies or drug candidates; the Company's limited operating history; failure to use and expand its medicinal nanoengineering platform to build a pipeline of drug candidates and develop marketable drugs; the early stage of the Company's development efforts with only one drug candidate in clinical development; failure of the Company or its collaborators to successfully develop and commercialize drug candidates; clinical drug development involves a lengthy and expensive process, with an uncertain outcome; delays or difficulties in the enrollment of patients in clinical trials; serious adverse or unacceptable side effects or limited efficacy observed during the development of the Company's drug candidates; inability to maintain any of the Company's collaborations, or the failure of these collaborations; the Company's reliance on third parties to conduct its clinical trials and manufacture its drug candidates; the Company's inability to obtain required regulatory approvals; any conclusion by the FDA that BIND-014 does not satisfy the requirements for approval under the Section 505(b)(2) regulatory approval pathway; the inability to obtain orphan drug exclusivity for drug candidates; failure to obtain marketing approval in international jurisdictions; any post-marketing restrictions or withdrawals from the market; effects of recently enacted and future legislation; failure to comply with environmental, health and safety laws and regulations; failure to achieve market acceptance by physicians, patients, or third-party payors; failure to establish effective sales, marketing and distribution capabilities or enter into agreements with third parties with such capabilities; effects of substantial competition; unfavorable pricing regulations, third-party reimbursement practices or healthcare reform initiatives; product liability lawsuits; failure to retain key executives and attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel; difficulties in managing our growth; risks associated with operating internationally, including the possibility of sanctions with respect to our operations in Russia; failure to obtain and maintain patent protection for or otherwise protect our technology and products; effects of patent or other intellectual property lawsuits; a significant portion of the Company's total outstanding shares recently became eligible to be sold, which could cause the market price of its common stock to drop significantly; increased costs as a result of operating as a public company; and any securities class action litigation. These and other important factors discussed under the caption "Risk Factors" in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, on August 7, 2014, and our other reports filed with the SEC could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements made in this press release.
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