Relay Therapeutics Names Steven Kafka to Its Board of Directors
“We are thrilled to welcome Steve to our board of directors,” said Sanjiv Patel, M.D., chief executive officer of Relay Therapeutics. “Steve is a proven industry leader with a strong track record of leading and growing precision oncology-focused companies from early-stage development through product commercialization. His guidance will be critical as we continue to build a sustainable, research-driven biopharmaceutical company with the goal of making important medicines for patients.”
Dr. Kafka was most recently president and chief operating officer and formerly chief business officer at Foundation Medicine, Inc., a company dedicated to transforming cancer care by identifying molecular alterations in each patient’s unique cancer and matching them with potential targeted therapies and immunotherapies. In these roles, Dr. Kafka was responsible for the biopharmaceutical and clinical businesses and had significant impacts on growing revenue and scaling operations for the core businesses, launching products, expanding the product to a global scale, driving key business development relationships and financing the company. Prior to joining Foundation Medicine, Dr. Kafka served in executive roles at oncology drug discovery and development companies including as chief operating officer and chief financial officer for Aileron Therapeutics, and vice president of finance for Infinity Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Kafka earned a B.A. with distinction and honors in economics and political science from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in political economy and government from Harvard University.
“Relay Therapeutics has built a compelling platform around protein motion and has generated meaningful data over the last two years on challenging targets in oncology,” said Dr. Kafka. “I look forward to applying my experiences in portfolio strategy, financing and company-building to work with the Relay team as the company advances its pipeline and builds its capacity to deliver transformative medicines for patients.”
About Relay Therapeutics
Relay Therapeutics is committed to discovering and developing medicines that will make a transformative difference for patients by building the first dedicated drug discovery pipeline centered on protein motion. Bringing together the latest scientific advances in structural biology, biophysics, computation, chemistry and biology, Relay’s drug discovery engine illuminates the full mobility of a protein and the ways in which protein motion regulates function. By applying this approach and by focusing on disease-causing targets, Relay aims to develop breakthrough medicines for patients in need. The company’s initial programs are focused on developing therapeutics in oncology. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Relay Therapeutics is a private company launched in 2016 and has raised $120 million in financing to date from Third Rock Ventures, BVF Partners, GV (formerly Google Ventures), Casdin Capital, EcoR1 Capital, Section 32, Alexandria Venture Investments, and an affiliate of D. E. Shaw Research.
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