Third Rock Ventures Appoints Mark L. Perry and Uday N. Kumar, M.D., to Entrepreneur-in-Residence Positions in West Coast Office

Third Rock Ventures Appoints Mark L. Perry and Uday N. Kumar, M.D., to Entrepreneur-in-Residence Positions in West Coast Office

BOSTON and SAN FRANCISCO, December 19, 2012 – Third Rock Ventures, LLC, a venture capital firm focused on building life sciences companies, today announced that Mark L. Perry and Uday N. Kumar, M.D., have joined Third Rock as entrepreneurs-in-residence (EIR) in the firm's West Coast office. As EIRs, Mr. Perry and Dr. Kumar will provide strategic input on new and existing portfolio companies.

"We are pleased to welcome Mark and Uday to our growing team of industry leaders in our West Coast office," said Kevin Starr, partner of Third Rock Ventures. "We continue to see exciting, transformational science in the Bay area, and with the help of the deep life sciences experience of Mark and Uday, we will have the expanded team resources to build promising companies with the potential to make a tremendous difference in the lives of patients."

Mr. Perry brings more than 30 years of experience serving in professional and management positions in the biotechnology industry. Mr. Perry currently serves as chairman of the board of Pathway Therapeutics and is a board member of Nvidia Corporation. Most recently, he served from 2007 to 2011 as president and CEO of Aerovance, a biotechnology company spun out of Bayer Corporation, and was a member of the company's board since its inception. Prior to joining Aerovance, Mr. Perry served as the senior business advisor for Gilead Sciences, Inc., and was an executive officer of Gilead from 1994 to 2004, serving in a variety of capacities, including general counsel, chief financial officer and executive vice president of operations.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Perry spent 13 years with Cooley LLP, serving as a partner where he maintained a corporate and securities practice with an emphasis on biotechnology and high technology companies, investment banks and venture capital partnerships. He is a member of the California State Bar Association, a member of the Association of Bioscience Financial Officers and serves on several nonprofit boards. Mr. Perry received his B.A. from the University of California, Berkley and his J.D. from the University of California, Davis.

"I've continued to be impressed by Third Rock's commitment to innovative science, its team and portfolio companies," said Mr. Perry. "As part of the West Coast office, I look forward to working with the team to continue to build companies here that are truly differentiated."

Dr. Kumar, a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist, is the founder of iRhythm Technologies, Inc., a medical device company focused on developing cost-effective new devices and systems for cardiac rhythm monitoring. He served as a board member and chief medical officer of iRhythm from founding through broad commercialization of its Zio® Patch cardiac monitoring device. He is also co-founder and board member of Sympara Medical, Inc., a company developing a novel therapy for hypertension. Dr. Kumar currently serves on the consulting faculty of bioengineering at Stanford University and is the fellowship director for Stanford's Biodesign Global Programs, programs that teach processes for medical innovation to solve unmet medical needs globally. Additionally, he is on the steering committee for Valuedriven Engineering and U.S. Global Competitiveness, an initiative focused on developing policies and recommendations to promote and retain U.S. leadership in medical device development and innovation. Dr. Kumar was a biodesign fellow at Stanford, a cardiac electrophysiology and cardiology fellow at the University of California, San Francisco, and internal medicine resident at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital of Columbia University. Prior to his training, Dr. Kumar was vice president and chief medical officer of Biomedical Modeling Inc., a start-up company that created rapid prototyping models from imaging data for use in numerous medical applications. Dr. Kumar received his M.D. and B.A. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Harvard University.

"As a physician and entrepreneur, I'm reminded every day that there are large unmet medical needs that can only be solved through new and innovative diagnostic approaches and therapeutic solutions," said Dr. Kumar. "I am delighted to be a part of the Third Rock team and participate in shaping the future of medicine through companies that have the potential to transform patient care."

About Third Rock Ventures
Third Rock Ventures is a venture capital firm founded in 2007 with the mission to launch transformative life sciences companies. With more than $800 million and two funds under management, the firm is focused on working with passionate entrepreneurs to build exceptional companies working in areas of disruptive science that will make a difference in the lives of patients. The firm has assembled a team with deep expertise and a proven track record of building respected and successful life sciences companies. With decades of complementary, cross-functional operational and leadership experience, the Third Rock team actively engages with its portfolio companies to provide hands-on strategy and experience to successfully launch companies with the best vision, science, operations, people and culture. With offices in Boston, MA and San Francisco, CA, Third Rock is well positioned geographically to closely collaborate with its portfolio companies to achieve their goals. To learn more about Third Rock and its portfolio companies, please visit www.thirdrockventures.com.

Current Third Rock Portfolio Companies
Ablexis, Afferent Pharmaceuticals, Agios Pharmaceuticals, Alcresta, Allena Pharmaceuticals, Alnara Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Eli Lilly & Co. in 2010), bluebird bio, Blueprint Medicines, Cibiem, Constellation Pharmaceuticals, CytomX Therapeutics, DC Devices, Edimer Pharmaceuticals, Eleven Biotherapeutics, Ember Therapeutics, Foundation Medicine, Global Blood Therapeutics, Igenica, Kala Pharmaceuticals, Lotus Tissue Repair, MyoKardia, NinePoint Medical, PanOptica Pharmaceuticals, Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, SAGE Therapeutics, Seventh Sense Biosystems, Taris Biomedical, Topica Pharmaceuticals, Warp Drive Bio and Zafgen.

Media Contact:
Dan Budwick
Pure Communications, Inc.
(973) 271-6085