Exo Therapeutics, Inc., a company pioneering the use of enzymatic exosites to address intractable drug targets, today announced the appointment of Nagesh Mahanthappa, PhD, to Executive Chair.
“The ExoSight™ platform has tremendous potential to be applied across a wide range of diseases and therapeutic targets,” said Dr. Mahanthappa. “It’s an honor to join Exo as Executive Chair at this exciting time and guide the advancement of our best- and first-in-class programs towards the clinic.”
Dr. Mahanthappa has served on Exo’s Board of Directors since March 2021 before being appointed Executive Chair. Previously, he was the founding employee, President, and CEO of Scholar Rock, Inc., where he led the building of a drug discovery platform, that has to date advanced two drug candidates into clinical testing, secured financings from seed stage through IPO and first follow-on, and established value-creating corporate partnerships.
Prior to Scholar Rock, he was a founding employee and VP of Corporate Development at Avila Therapeutics where he played key roles in its successful acquisition by Celgene. Dr. Mahanthappa was also a founding employee of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, and before that held roles of increasing responsibility at Vertex and Curis (formerly Ontogeny, Inc.). Dr. Mahanthappa received his PhD in Neurobiology from the California Institute of Technology and completed his post-doctoral training at The Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center and Harvard Medical School. He received a BA in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Colorado, and an MBA from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Management at Babson College, MA.
“We are thrilled that Nagesh is stepping into the role of Executive Chair at this important time in the company’s development,” said Dorothy Lou Bailey, COO and Interim President at Exo. “Nagesh is an industry veteran with experience building innovative and sustainable companies, and his leadership will be instrumental as we advance our platform and bring our novel therapeutic programs to the clinic.”
