STORM Therapeutics Expands R&D Leadership Team
- Matthew Fyfe joins as Senior Vice President of Therapeutics
- Beth Thomas promoted to Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry
10 January 2023, Cambridge, UK: STORM Therapeutics Ltd. (STORM), the clinical stage biotechnology company discovering and developing novel small molecule therapies targeting RNA modifying enzymes (RMEs) for oncology and other diseases, today announces the appointment of Matthew Fyfe as Senior Vice President of Therapeutics and the promotion of Beth Thomas to Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry.
Matthew Fyfe has over 20 years’ experience in drug discovery and development, having formerly held Senior Leadership positions at Sitryx (Oxford), TopiVert (London), Oryzon (Barcelona) and Prosidion (Oxford). Matthew has successfully led multiple research programs in several therapeutic areas, delivering clinical candidates that have reached Phase 2 or further in oncology, immunology, metabolic disease, neurology and ophthalmology. Matthew obtained degrees from the University of Glasgow (BSc), Columbia University (MA) and the University of Birmingham (PhD) prior to postdoctoral studies at UCLA with Nobel prize winner Sir Fraser Stoddart. He is a Chartered Chemist, a Fellow of The Royal Society of Chemistry, an author of more than 40 peer-reviewed publications and an inventor on over 90 patent applications. Matthew will work with the leadership team to progress STORM’s pipeline while working with functional heads and project leaders to define medicinal chemistry, drug discovery, DMPK, PK–PD, CMC and preclinical development strategies.
Newly promoted Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry, Beth Thomas has over 20 years of experience in medicinal and computational chemistry and joined STORM Therapeutics in 2016. In her new role, she will be responsible for medicinal chemistry strategy to enable the discovery and progression of clinical candidates from Storm’s project portfolio. Beth has experience in industrial, academic and not-for-profit roles, leading inter-disciplinary drug discovery teams at Celltech, UCB, BioFocus, University of Cambridge and the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre. Beth has a BSc in Chemistry from the University of St Andrews and a PhD in polyketide biosynthesis with Professors Staunton and Leadlay at the University of Cambridge.
Oliver Rausch, Chief Scientific Officer of STORM Therapeutics, said: “I am delighted to welcome Matthew to the leadership team at STORM. His extensive experience and insight will be invaluable as the team continues to develop its strategies and progress our innovative, discovery pipeline for the benefit of cancer patients. The promotion of Beth is a credit to her talent, dedication and continued commitment to STORM as she steps up to take on overall leadership of medicinal chemistry efforts across our discovery pipeline.”
Matthew Fyfe, Senior Vice President of STORM Therapeutics, commented: “I am excited to be joining this strong and experienced drug discovery and development team. I look forward to utilizing my experience and knowledge to the advancement of STORM’S innovative drug candidates, which have the potential to ultimately transform and improve patient outcomes.”
Beth Thomas, Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry of STORM Therapeutics, added: “I am passionate about the groundbreaking work we are undertaking at STORM in leading projects on novel drug targets to create novel therapies, and I am excited to take on this new role as Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry.”
The appointment and promotion follow on from STORM’s recent closing of a USD $30M Series B financing and the commencement of a Phase 1 clinical study of its first-in-class candidate STC-15, an orally bioavailable, highly selective METTL3 inhibitor which began a clinical trial in cancer patients with solid tumors in November 2022. Details of the study can be found on clinicaltrials.gov under the identifier NCT05584111. Initial results from the Phase 1 study are anticipated to be presented in 2023.
CONTACTS:
STORM Therapeutics Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)1223 804174
info@stormtherapeutics.com
Optimum Strategic Communications
Hollie Vile, Eva Haas, Manel Mateus, Zoe Bolt, Elena Bates
Tel: +44 (0)203 882 9621
storm@optimumcomms.com
NOTES TO EDITORS
About STORM Therapeutics
STORM Therapeutics (STORM) is a clinical stage biotechnology company creating novel therapies that inhibit RNA modifying enzymes (RME) for use in oncology and other diseases. There are more than 150 RNA modifications reported and approximately 300 RNA modifying enzymes which represent novel therapeutic targets.
STORM has leveraged its first-mover advantage to establish a novel drug discovery and RNA analytics platform leading to the identification of novel targets and a proprietary pipeline of first-in-class smallmolecule drug candidates for potential use in oncology, inflammation, viral infection and CNS diseases.
The pipeline is exemplified by STORM’s METTL3 inhibitor, STC-15, which has received IND approval and commenced its Phase 1 clinical study in cancer patients in November 2022. STC-15 represents the first ever RNA modifying enzyme inhibitor to enter clinical evaluation in humans. Additional programs are planned for advancement into IND-track activities in 2023. Fierce Biotech named STORM as one of its 2022 “Fierce 15”, designating it as one of the most innovative, exciting biotechnology companies in the industry, pioneering novel drug targets.
STORM investors include M Ventures, Pfizer Ventures, Taiho Ventures LLC, Cambridge Innovation Capital I Limited, Seroba Life Sciences, IP Group plc, Fast Track Initiative (FTI), and the UTokyo Innovation Platform Co., Ltd. (UTokyo IPC).
For more information, please visit www.stormtherapeutics.com
About STC-15
STORM’s lead clinical program STC-15 is a first-in-class inhibitor of RNA modification and is the first ever RNA methyltransferase inhibitor to enter clinical development. STC-15 is an oral small molecule that inhibits METTL3, an RNA methyltransferase implicated in oncology and other diseases. Certain RNA methyltransferases are important regulators of RNA sensing and innate immune activation and represent novel immune-regulatory targets.
STC-15 has also been shown to inhibit tumor growth through mechanisms involving anti-cancer immune responses, such as changes in interferon signaling and synergy with T cell checkpoint blockade. In addition, this compound has demonstrated efficacy in leukemia models via mechanisms such inhibition of leukemia stem cell function.
STORM commenced the dosing of the first patient in a Phase 1 clinical study of STC-15 in patients living with solid tumors in November 2022 and anticipates presenting results from its study in 2023.