The departure of Joseph Bolen from Moderna Therapeutics as its CSO last year, as well as other subsequent high-profile exoduses, has caused much speculation about the health of this ambitious biotech unicorn.
Now, Bolen is back as the CSO of PureTech Health, a venture firm that has since morphed a bit over the years into a publicly listed therapeutic discovery and development company. He first joined PureTech late last year.
There, he will lead the work on PureTech’s pipeline, which focuses on immune, nervous and gastrointestinal systems and includes more than 20 ongoing clinical trials. PureTech has 5 candidates that are in proof-of-concept studies, as well as multiple pivotal data readouts in the next couple of years.
“PureTech Health is one of the most exciting companies in biotech, advancing truly unique multi-modal solutions to some of today’s most significant healthcare challenges through modulation of the human nervous and immune adaptive systems,” Bolen said in a statement. “Our mission at PureTech Health is to collaborate broadly with biomedical science and technology leaders in order to generate the most exciting ideas and then to transform these concepts into breakthrough medicines.”
In this new role, Dr. Bolen will lead the scientific development and advancement of PureTech’s pipeline and will work closely with the team and Scientific Advisory Board as the company identifies and pursues new modalities to address significant medical needs.
Bolen held the position of CSO with Moderna for only 10 months, departing in October 2015. He started out at the Cambridge, MA-based company as its president of R&D; he held that spot for a little over a year and a half. Prior to that, he had been the CSO at Millennium Pharmaceuticals for 14 years. Millennium was acquired by Takeda in 2008 for $8.8 billion.
“Joe is a seasoned industry expert who brings the ideal balance of rigor and creativity to the role of CSO, and shares our vision for identifying and nurturing innovation that can potentially redefine healthcare,” said PureTech CEO Daphne Zohar.