News
FORMA Therapeutics Appoints Kenneth W. Bair to Head Research and Development
June 29, 2009
CAMBRIDGE, MA — FORMA Therapeutics announced today that Kenneth W. Bair, Ph.D., has been appointed as Senior Vice President and Head of Research and Development. Dr. Bair brings to FORMA 30 years of biotech and pharmaceutical industry experience focused on managing the growth and advancement of leading oncology pipelines.
“This is a truly exciting time to be in oncology drug development with the rapid pace at which new discoveries are being made,” stated Dr. Bair. “I joined FORMA because this company represents an unprecedented opportunity to work in an entrepreneurial environment with some of the best academic minds in the field while having access to a comprehensive array of integrated discovery tools with which to translate these new discoveries into a pipeline of breakthrough drugs.”
“Ken brings to FORMA an ideal combination of management experience from some of the top pharma oncology R&D teams and an impressive track-record of productivity,” said Steven Tregay, CEO of FORMA. “I was particularly impressed with Ken’s ability to reinvigorate Chiron’s R&D efforts. He and coworkers created a cutting-edge drug discovery platform that produced multiple INDs in only 3 years. I am honored to welcome Ken to the FORMA management team as we apply our fully-integrated drug discovery platform to fuel an innovative oncology pipeline.”
Dr. Bair brings to FORMA over 30 years of management experience in oncology drug discovery, development and chemistry. Over his career, Dr. Bair held multiple senior-level positions in pharmaceutical R&D. At EntreMed, Inc. he was Senior Vice President and Head of Research and Development. At Chiron Corporation, Dr. Bair served as Senior Vice President and Head, BioPharmaceuticals Research. Prior to joining Chiron Corporation in 2003, Dr. Bair was Vice President, Discovery Oncology at Pharmacia Corporation. From 1982 until joining Pharmacia, Dr. Bair held positions of increasing responsibility within the pharmaceutical industry, including Unit Head of Oncology at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation and Executive Director and Head, Oncology Research Program, Sandoz Pharmaceuticals Corporation; and various oncology research positions at Burroughs Wellcome. Dr. Bair received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
About FORMA
FORMA Therapeutics is integrating transformative biology and chemistry to unlock the best targets and pathways that genomics medicine has revealed. FORMA builds on the vision of its academic founders: Stuart Schreiber, Todd Golub, Michael Foley, each of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and leverages its innovative drug discovery platform to address challenging targets and develop a robust internal pipeline of targeted breakthrough oncology drugs. FORMA is a global company headquartered in Cambridge, MA with additional research operations in Connecticut, Singapore and Beijing. www.formatherapeutics.com
Contact:
FORMA Therapeutics
Steven Tregay, CEO
(617) 679-1970
Media Contact:
MacDougall Biomedical Communications
Douglas MacDougall or Jennifer Conrad
(781) 235-3060