Travecta Therapeutics Appoints Douglas C. Hicks as Chief Business Officer

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Travecta Therapeutics, an emerging biotech company developing a platform that leverages its proprietary knowledge of the MFSD2a Transport for the targeted delivery of therapeutic agents across the blood-brain barrier, announces it has appointed Douglas C. Hicks as Chief Business Officer. Mr. Hicks will serve on the Travecta Therapeutics executive leadership team and lead business development and corporate strategy for the company.

“Doug joins our team at a critical time, as we continue to develop our internal pipeline and begin to establish external partnerships of our novel platform, which assists companies in delivering their molecules across the blood-brain barrier,” said Michael Shleifer, Ph.D., Interim Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Travecta Therapeutics. “Doug’s experience in executing strategic transactions with unique technologies is ideally aligned with the goals of Travecta.”

Mr. Hicks joins Travecta with more than 20 years of industry experience, where he has focused on business development and the execution of business strategy for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.

“I am delighted to be joining Travecta, a company that is revolutionizing CNS drug delivery,” said Mr. Hicks. “Travecta is ideally positioned with an innovative platform and a strong pipeline of assets. I look forward to working with the experienced scientific team at Travecta to further advance the company and identify strong partnerships for our technology.”

Mr. Hicks joins Travecta Therapeutics from iBio, Inc. (NYSE AMERICAN: IBIO), where he was the Senior Vice President of Business Development and Strategy and responsible for leading the business development and strategic initiatives of the company. Prior to joining iBio in 2010, Mr. Hicks was the Executive Director of Business Development and Strategic Analysis at Clearview Projects, Inc, a strategic advisory firm which provided business development, product alliance, and strategic advice to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. He began his career as a consultant for Bristol-Myers Squibb. Mr. Hicks has led or advised on the execution of more than fifty transactions with an overall deal value exceeding $700 million. He received his MBA from The Pennsylvania State University with a focus on finance and strategy and a bachelor’s degree from Florida State University.

About Travecta Therapeutics

Travecta Therapeutics is an emerging biotech company developing a platform that leverages our proprietary knowledge of the MFSD2a transport for the targeted delivery of therapeutic agents to the brain and eye. Our platform and know-how allow us to identify and categorize small molecules for enabling their transport across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and blood-retina barrier (BRB). Travecta partners with pharmaceutical companies to apply our platform and assist them in overcoming the challenges associated with delivering drugs across the BBB and BRB. Our internal program is focusing on the development of molecules that treat diseases of the central nervous system and the eye.

Travecta Therapeutics was founded by experienced scientific leaders from Duke-NUS and backed by TKS1, a healthcare and life science-focused venture capital fund formed by the partnership between SPRIM Ventures and Tikehau Capital. The company has offices in Philadelphia and Singapore.

For more information, visit travectatherapeutics.com.

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