Turnstone Appoints Saryah Azmat as Senior Vice President of Business Development and Corporate Strategy

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Turnstone Biologics Inc., a biotechnology company pioneering the development of engineered viral immunotherapies, today announced the appointment of Saryah Azmat as senior vice president of business development and corporate strategy. Ms. Azmat will lead identification, evaluation and execution of new business development opportunities and development of the company’s corporate growth strategy.

“Saryah is an accomplished business leader, with unique insights and a comprehensive understanding of the oncology therapeutic development landscape,” said Sammy Farah, Ph.D., CEO, Turnstone Biologics. “We are delighted to have Saryah join Turnstone and bring her wealth of knowledge, deal making credentials and proven critical thinking to our exceptional senior leadership team at Turnstone. Continued advancement of our business development and corporate strategy is essential to achieving our mission to bring novel and innovative medicines to people with cancer.”

Ms. Azmat joins Turnstone Biologics from Bristol-Myers Squibb (“BMS”), where she was the Global Lead for Oncology Search & Evaluation. During her six-year tenure at BMS, Ms. Azmat executed over 15 transactions spanning all stages of preclinical and clinical development, in addition to her other strategic roles and responsibilities. Prior to BMS, she was a consultant for global biopharma clients at Putnam Associates, where she managed clinical and commercial stage projects. Ms. Azmat earned a B.A. in engineering sciences and a B.E. in biomedical engineering from the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College.

“Our differentiated viral platform has the potential to fulfill an important need and overcome many of the challenges that exist today in the immuno-oncology field,” said Saryah Azmat. “New strategic partnerships and targeted corporate growth opportunities can enable and accelerate this process, and I am thrilled to join the incredible Turnstone team to help chart an exciting path forward for the company.”

About Turnstone Biologics

Turnstone Biologics is developing a disruptive class of engineered viral immunotherapies, attacking cancer’s complexity with medicines designed to fight malignant disease at multiple points of intervention. Turnstone’s proprietary vaccinia virus platform has been engineered to stimulate the immune system, drive antigen presentation and recognition, and re-shape the tumor microenvironment. In addition, the large transgene capacity of the virus can be utilized to deliver other agents and therapeutics directly to sites of tumors throughout the body for local expression, reducing the potential for systemic toxicity. RIVAL-01 is Turnstone’s lead candidate, consisting of the vaccinia virus backbone encoding three potent immunomodulators, Flt3 ligand, anti-CTLA-4 antibody and IL-12 cytokine, specifically designed to work together to drive immune activity and re-program the microenvironment to be best suited for tumor eradication. Learn more at www.turnstonebio.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200108005253/en/