NEW YORK and SAN DIEGO, Sept. 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zentalis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ZNTL), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing small molecule therapeutics targeting fundamental biological pathways of cancers, today announced the appointment of Alexis Pinto as Chief Legal Officer. Ms. Pinto joins Zentalis with over 20 years of legal and strategic business development experience in the healthcare industry, most recently at Celgene Corporation.
“We are thrilled to welcome Alexis to Zentalis, as her depth of knowledge in deal-making and leading legal teams within the life science sector will be a great asset to the Company,” said Dr. Anthony Sun, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Zentalis Pharmaceuticals. “Alexis will be responsible for the legal function across the organization, in addition to advising the Zentalis team on all legal affairs related to our growing pipeline of differentiated oncology candidates.”
Ms. Pinto most recently served as Corporate Vice President & Corporate Secretary at Celgene Corporation, where she transformed the legal support provided to the Business Development and Global Alliance Management groups, and served as lead counsel on critical, high-value transactions, including the acquisition of Celgene by Bristol Myers Squibb Company. Prior to joining Celgene, she was Managing Counsel of Corporate Transactions at Merck & Co., Inc., where she led, structured and managed complex sales, acquisitions, licensing and joint venture transactions, including the divestiture of Merck’s consumer care business to Bayer AG. Over her 18-year tenure at Merck, Ms. Pinto held numerous positions of increasing responsibility and scope, starting out as a labor and employment attorney and progressing into licensing, vaccines, mergers and acquisitions and business development roles. She earned her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and her B.A. from the University of Virginia.
“I am honored to join an organization that is committed to developing best-in-class therapeutics that have the potential to revolutionize the lives of cancer patients,” commented Alexis Pinto, J.D., Chief Legal Officer at Zentalis Pharmaceuticals. “Over the past year, Zentalis has made impressive strides on both the corporate and clinical fronts, and I look forward to working with the management team and board to further build the legal framework necessary to reach the Company’s future milestones.”
About Zentalis
Zentalis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing small molecule therapeutics targeting fundamental biological pathways of cancers. The Company is developing a broad pipeline of potentially best-in-class oncology candidates, including ZN-c5, an oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) for ER+/HER2- breast cancer, ZN-c3, a WEE1 inhibitor, ZN-d5, a BCL-2 inhibitor and ZN-e4, an EGFR inhibitor. Zentalis has operations in both New York and San Diego.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including without limitation statements regarding our expectations surrounding the development, commercialization, potential, safety, efficacy, and regulatory and clinical progress of our product candidates, and the impact of management changes. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the following: the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19, has adversely impacted and may continue to adversely impact our business, including our preclinical studies and clinical trials; our limited operating history, which may make it difficult to evaluate our current business and predict our future success and viability; we have and expect to continue to incur significant losses; our need for additional funding, which may not be available; our substantial dependence on the success of our lead product candidate; failure to identify additional product candidates and develop or commercialize marketable products; the early stage of our development efforts; potential unforeseen events during clinical trials could cause delays or other adverse consequences; risks relating to the regulatory approval process or ongoing regulatory obligations; failure to obtain U.S. or international marketing approval; our product candidates may cause serious adverse side effects; inability to maintain our collaborations, or the failure of these collaborations; our reliance on third parties; effects of significant competition; the possibility of system failures or security breaches; risks relating to intellectual property; our ability to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel; and significant costs as a result of operating as a public company. These and other important factors discussed under the caption “Risk Factors” in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended June 30, 2020 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and our other filings with the SEC could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements made in this press release. Any such forward-looking statements represent management’s estimates as of the date of this press release. While we may elect to update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we disclaim any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause our views to change.
