RAPT Therapeutics Announces Management Promotions

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., March 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RAPT Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: RAPT), a clinical-stage immunology-based biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing oral small molecule therapies for patients with significant unmet needs in oncology and inflammatory diseases, today announced the promotions of Paul Kassner, Ph.D., to Senior Vice President of Quantitative and Computational Biology and Lisa Moore, Ph.D., to Vice President of Business Development and Strategy.

“Both Paul and Lisa continue to make incredible contributions to RAPT’s success in setting and implementing strategic business and scientific plans,” said Brian Wong, M.D., Ph.D., President and CEO of RAPT Therapeutics. “Paul’s promotion recognizes his excellence in driving data-driven analyses and execution of our preclinical programs as well as the development of key clinical biomarker assays that have informed and accelerated our two lead clinical programs FLX475 and RPT193. Lisa led our efforts to secure a strategic collaboration with Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co., LTD, for FLX475 in Asia, excluding Japan and other territories, and consistently builds and maintains strong relationships with our alliance partners, including with Merck.”

Paul joined RAPT Therapeutics in 2016, as Vice President of Quantitative and Computational Biology. He has more than 20 years of experience building and leading high-performance technical groups in various biopharmaceutical organizations. Most recently, Paul was Director of Research and Head of the Genome Analysis Unit at Amgen, Inc. During his eleven years at Amgen, he developed and implemented multiple high-throughput platforms for drug discovery and target identification across a broad spectrum of therapeutic areas. Prior to Amgen, Paul held scientific and leadership positions in several smaller companies, which enabled him to exercise his passion for creating novel technology platforms to enable drug discovery. Paul received his B.S. in Genetics and Development from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana before performing graduate research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and earning his Ph.D. in Immunology from Harvard University. Paul completed postdoctoral work in Cellular Neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego.

Lisa joined RAPT Therapeutics in 2018, as Senior Director of Business Development and Strategy. With more than 20 years of experience in business and scientific leadership, at RAPT she is responsible for lead asset partnering and out-licensing, having secured a significant partnership with Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co., LTD. Prior to joining RAPT, she served as Director of Alliance Management for Nurix, Inc. where she managed drug discovery and development strategic alliances with pharma partners in addition to management of strategic research collaborations. Previously, she served as Associate Director of Alliance Management for Novartis Diagnostics managing four commercial alliances as well as establishing cross-functional operating committees to govern product development and commercial activities. Prior to Novartis, she held positions of escalating responsibility at Codexis, Incyte and Exelixis. She received her Ph.D. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her B.A. in Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

About RAPT Therapeutics, Inc.

RAPT Therapeutics is a clinical stage immunology-based biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing oral small molecule therapies for patients with significant unmet needs in oncology and inflammatory diseases. Utilizing its proprietary discovery and development engine, the Company is developing highly selective small molecules designed to modulate the critical immune drivers underlying these diseases. RAPT has discovered and advanced two unique drug candidates, FLX475 and RPT193, each targeting C-C motif chemokine receptor 4 (CCR4), for the treatment of cancer and inflammation, respectively. The Company is also pursuing a range of targets, including general control nonderepressible 2 (GCN2) and hematopoietic progenitor kinase 1 (HPK1), that are in the discovery stage of development.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future performances or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Each of these statements is based only on current information, assumptions and expectations that are inherently subject to change and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to the outcome, cost, and timing of our clinical trials, our ability to obtain funding for our operations, the accuracy of our estimate of the number of people affected by atopic dermatitis, and other risks. Detailed information regarding factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by statements in this press release may be found in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in RAPT’s registration statement on Form S-1 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 4, 2020 and subsequent filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. RAPT disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Media Contact:

Angela Bitting



(925) 202-6211

Investor Contact:

Sylvia Wheeler