T-cell startup Maverick Therapeutics has promoted Robert DuBridge and Chad May. The executives, who have been at Maverick since its inception, are stepping into new roles in the biotech’s R&D team.
Maverick spun out of Harpoon Therapeutics around the end of 2016 and quickly landed $125 million from Takeda in return for a buyout option. At Harpoon, DuBridge’s team initiated the Cobra project that gave rise to Maverick, making him a co-founding scientist at the startup, while May joined at the time of the Takeda investment in January 2017.
DuBridge originally held the title of SVP of research discovery at Maverick, giving him a starring role in efforts to use his Cobra project to create highly potent T-cell engagers. The bispecifics are given as prodrugs designed to be activated inside tumors, thereby improving their side effect profiles.
Having spent the past two years advancing the work as SVP of research discovery, DuBridge is now taking on a new role. DuBridge’s new title is EVP, research and chief technology officer.
May, who has worked with DuBridge to validate Maverick’s platform, is stepping up a rung at the same time. Maverick hired May as VP of R&D at the start of 2017, ending the researcher’s seven-year spell at Pfizer. Now, Maverick is promoting May to the position of SVP of R&D.
DuBridge and May are half of the four-person management team at Maverick. The pair were joined at the biotech in August 2017 by CEO James Scibetta as CEO. Eleven months later, Maverick rounded out its team by hiring James Vasselli as VP of clinical development. Along the way, Maverick lost its founding CSO, Hans-Peter Gerber, to 3T Biosciences.
Other than updates about its executive team, Maverick has kept a low profile since unveiling the deal with Takeda that secured its near-term future. Around 20 people list Maverick as their current employer on LinkedIn.