Kronos Bio, a member of this year’s Fierce 15, has snagged Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’ executive director of business development, Philip Gutry, to serve as its new chief business officer—tasking him with managing the company’s clinical alliances and expanding its pipeline.
“As we embark on what we intend to be rapid growth, Phil’s proven expertise in biotechnology and depth of knowledge across industry pipelines will be critical to our partnering efforts,” Kronos President and CEO Norbert Bischofberger, Ph.D., said in a statement.
At Regeneron, Gutry helped lead the company’s immuno-oncology business development strategies, while working with R&D on clinical development priorities. Prior to that, he was a principal at MPM Capital, where he helped guide its venture investments in oncology companies and managed its partnerships with Janssen and Astellas.
Before MPM, Gutry was associate director of corporate development at Gilead, focusing on mergers, acquisitions and licensing in oncology, respiratory, liver and infectious diseases.
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“His network and decades of experience developing, investing in and operating across various stages of companies will be immediately leveraged as we look for additional opportunities to accelerate Kronos’ growth,” added Bischofberger, who previously headed up Gilead’s R&D, before hitting the reset button and moving to the early-stage Kronos, which focuses on screening chemical libraries against difficult cancer targets.
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Kronos announced raising $18 million in seed funding earlier this year to fund its lead preclinical projects focused on the androgen receptor as a driver of prostate cancer, and the MYC family of transcription factors. Its board members include Bischofberger as well as Gilead’s former CEO, John Martin, with Kite Pharma founder Arie Belldegrun serving as chairman.