New board reflects company’s added focus on oncology & autoimmune diseases
SARASOTA, Fla. and MIAMI, Feb. 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NAYA Biosciences (“NAYA”) (NASDAQ: NAYA), a life science portfolio company dedicated to bringing breakthrough treatments to patients in oncology, autoimmune diseases, and women’s health, today announced that its board of directors has nominated five new candidates with extensive experience in in the biotechnology industry to be approved at the company shareholder meeting scheduled for March 10th, 2025.
Laurent Audoly, PhD is the cofounder and CEO of PriveBio, a precision medicine company, and a professor and strategic advisor at the Institute for Experiential AI at Northeastern University. He has previously founded and scaled several biotechs across multiple therapeutic areas and serves as a board member of several companies. Dr. Audoly was the founding president and CEO of Kymera Therapeutics (NASDAQ: KYMR) and an advisor at Atlas Venture. Dr. Audoly previously held leadership positions in R&D at Pfizer, Merck and Pierre Fabre Group, where he was the global head of Research & Development and played a pivotal role in eight drug approvals. He holds a PhD in Pharmacology from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and completed his post-doctoral fellowship at UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University.
Melissa Fensterstock, MPhil, MBA is an advisor with Material Impact Fund since 2023, where she helps early-stage companies translate innovations from academic settings to commercial scale. Ms. Fensterstock previously served as CEO and board member of Lansdowne Labs, a spin-out from MIT and Harvard founded by Professors Robert Langer and Jeffrey Karp. She has also held executive-in-residence positions at Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, Yale University, and Climate Haven. Ms. Fensterstock holds a Master in Business Administration from Harvard Business School, a Master of Philosophy in Bioscience Enterprise from the University of Cambridge, and a B.A. in Neuroscience from Johns Hopkins University.
Prakash Raman, PhD is the CEO of InduPro, Inc., a venture-backed protein therapeutics company. He is also a director at Black Diamond Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:BDTX). He previously served as Chief Business Development Officer at Flagship Pioneering and spent nearly fourteen years at Novartis, most recently as VP, Global Health of Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR), Business Development and Licensing (BD&L), where he was instrumental in forging key collaborations in immuno-oncology, executing numerous out-licensing opportunities, and guiding the acquisitions of Advanced Accelerator Applications, Endocyte, IFM Tre, and Selexys. He received his Ph.D. in Organic and Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and spent two years as a post-doctoral fellow at The Scripps Research Institute.
Daniel Teper, PharmD, MBA is the Founder & President of NAYA Biosciences. He is also the Executive Chairman of Imaginostics and a member of the supervisory board of Crossject (Euronext: ALCJ.PA). Previously, Dr. Teper served as the Chairman & CEO of Cytovia Therapeutics, CEO of Immune Pharmaceuticals (where he led the company to its NASDAQ-listing), Managing Partner, Head of North America at Bionest Partners (now Accenture), Partner at ISO Healthcare (now Deloitte), SVP of Sales & Business Development at Softwatch, a pioneer digital health company, Global President of Havas Health, a leading communications group, and has held senior management positions at Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, and Sanofi. He holds a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Paris XI University and an MBA from INSEAD, where he was the J. Salmon scholar.
Alexandra Urman, MPH is an analyst and portfolio manager at the intersection of biotechnology and healthcare innovation. Ms. Urman currently serves as the CEO of Aomics and Senior Vice President of the Florida-Israel Business Accelerator’s Venture Fund. She previously served at ARK Investments, where she focused on their Genomic Revolution strategy. Ms. Urman serves as a board member of Cure Rare Disease and an advisor for the Stanford School of Medicine’s SPARK program. Ms. Urman started her career in clinical cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Montefiore Medical Center and as a Senior Research Program Manager at IBM Watson Health, where she championed the integration of AI in healthcare. Ms. Urman holds a B.A. from McGill University and a Master’s in Epidemiology and Community Health from New York Medical College.
About NAYA Biosciences
NAYA Biosciences (NASDAQ: NAYA) is a life science portfolio company dedicated to bringing breakthrough treatments to patients in oncology, autoimmune diseases, and women’s health. Our proven hub & spoke model harnesses the shared resources of a parent company and agility of lean strategic franchises, enabling efficient acquisition, development, and partnering of assets and allowing for optimized return on investment by combining scalable, profitable commercial revenues with the upside of innovative clinical-stage therapeutics.
NAYA’s expanding portfolio of assets currently includes NY-303, a GPC3 x NKp46 bifunctional antibody for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with a unique mode of action targeting non-responders to the current immunotherapy standard of care (approximately 70% of the current treatable market) cleared to enroll patients in a Phase 1/2a monotherapy trial in 2025, NY-338, a CD38 x NKp46 bifunctional antibody for the treatment of multiple myeloma and autoimmune diseases with a differentiated safety and efficacy profile, NY-500, a PD-1 x VEGF bifunctional antibody for the treatment of HCC and other solid tumors, and NY-600 a PSMA x NKp46 bifunctional antibody for the treatment of metastatic Castration Resistant Prostate Cancer (mCRPC).
Safe Harbor Statement This release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The Company invokes the protections of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements regarding our expected future financial position, results of operations, cash flows, financing plans, business strategies, products and services, competitive positions, growth opportunities, plans and objectives of management for future operations, as well as statements that include words such as “anticipate,” “if,” “believe,” “plan,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “could,” “should,” “will,” and other similar expressions are forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties, and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control, which may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from anticipated results, performance, or achievements. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include those set forth in our filings at www.sec.gov. We are under no obligation to (and expressly disclaim any such obligation to) update or alter our forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
NAYA Investor & Media Contact Anna Baran-Djokovic SVP, Investor Relations +1-305-615-9162 anna@nayabiosciences.com
