MILFORD, Mass., Aug. 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics for the treatment of viral infections, today announced the appointment of Martin Driscoll as President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Driscoll is a seasoned health care executive with more than three decades of experience successfully leading biopharmaceutical companies through the clinical development and commercialization of innovative therapies. He replaces Douglas J. Jensen, who is leaving Spring Bank to pursue other opportunities. Mr. Driscoll has also been elected to the Company's Board of Directors.
The Company also announced today that Kurt M. Eichler has been elected to the Company's Board of Directors.
"I am delighted to welcome Martin Driscoll as our new President and CEO as Spring Bank embarks on its next stage of growth," said Guy Macdonald, Chairman of Spring Bank's Board of Directors and President and CEO of Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, Inc. "Marty has a proven track record of growing public and private life sciences companies, with deep insight into both product and business development strategy. We would like to thank Doug Jensen for his many contributions to Spring Bank over the past 13 years."
Mr. Macdonald continued, "We also welcome Kurt Eichler to our Board of Directors. Kurt's broad experience in providing strategic guidance to emerging companies will lend an important perspective to the Board and management during this important period for the Company."
"Spring Bank represents an exciting opportunity, with a novel chemistry platform that has already produced an innovative clinical compound, SB 9200, being developed for the treatment of hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV) and other viruses," said Mr. Driscoll. "Furthermore, in addition to SB 9200, we have a broad pre-clinical pipeline with programs in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and broad spectrum antivirals, as well as other earlier stage programs. I look forward to working alongside Spring Bank's talented management team and experienced Board to advance our exciting product development programs and build significant company value."
Mr. Driscoll's diverse experience includes leadership roles in general management, research and development, commercial operations and business development for both privately-held and publicly-traded life sciences commercial- and development-stage companies. Mr. Driscoll most recently served as CEO of Asmacure Ltée, a venture-backed clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company which he joined in late 2010. Mr. Driscoll recently completed a successful sale of Asmacure Ltée to a Canadian-based privately-held life sciences firm. Prior to Asmacure, Mr. Driscoll was the CEO and a director of Javelin Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a publicly-traded developer of acute care pain products, from March 2008 until July 2010 when he engineered the merger of Javelin with Hospira, Inc. Mr. Driscoll has also served in various senior management roles at Schering-Plough Corporation, ViroPharma, Inc. and Reliant Pharmaceuticals, Inc. In 2007, Mr. Driscoll co-founded Pear Tree Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately-held developer of women's healthcare products. Mr. Driscoll has been involved with or led the commercialization of several important therapies, the direct negotiation of numerous licensing and M&A transactions, multiple private and public capital fundraising efforts, and the successful submission of major product regulatory filings. Mr. Driscoll also has served as a director on the boards of four private and public biopharmaceutical development companies and currently serves on the board of MetaStat, Inc., a molecular diagnostics company based in Boston. Mr. Driscoll holds a B.Sc. in communications from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a board member of the Barn for the Poorest of the Poor, a non-profit food pantry based in New Jersey.
Mr. Eichler brings over three decades of business, finance and corporate development experience to Spring Bank. Most recently, he was an Executive Vice President and Principal of LCOR Incorporated, a national real estate development and investment company. Prior to that, he served in increasingly senior roles at The Linpro Company (the predecessor to LCOR), culminating in his position as Operating Partner, where he was responsible for new development and asset management activities across several metropolitan areas. Prior to LCOR, Mr. Eichler served at Merrill Lynch, Hubbard Inc. in the Real Estate Debt and Equity Finance Group. He has served on several Boards, including DARA Biosciences, Inc., and MiMedx Group, Inc. Mr. Eichler holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Wyoming.
About Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals
Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of a novel class of orally bioavailable therapeutics based on its proprietary small molecule nucleic acid hybrid, or SMNH, chemistry platform. SMNH compounds are small segments of nucleic acids that we design to selectively target and modulate the activity of specific proteins or enzymes implicated in various disease states. The Company is developing its most advanced SMNH product candidate, SB 9200, for the treatment of viral diseases. SB 9200 has been designed to selectively activate the host cellular proteins, RIG I and NOD 2, which have been implicated in the body's immune response to viral infections. Spring Bank believes that SB 9200 can play an important role in antiviral therapy by modulating host immune response to fight viral infections such as HBV, HCV and RSV.
Contact:
Maeve Conneighton
Argot Partners
(212) 600-1902
[email protected]
Eliza Schleifstein
Argot Partners
[email protected]
212-600-1902
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SOURCE Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals, Inc.