Translate Bio Announces Key Leadership Additions and Promotions

-- Seasoned healthcare executive, Brendan Smith, appointed as Chief Financial Officer, bringing

strategic operations and financial leadership --

-- Appointments enhance capabilities across pulmonary programs, manufacturing and financial operations with a goal of advancing platform, preclinical and clinical milestones --

LEXINGTON, Mass., April 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Translate Bio (Nasdaq: TBIO), a clinical-stage messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics company developing a new class of potentially transformative medicines to treat or prevent debilitating or life-threatening diseases, today announced several key leadership appointments, including Brendan Smith as Chief Financial Officer, Greg Troiano as Chief Manufacturing Officer, and Jim Sullivan as Senior Vice President, Pulmonary Discovery. These leadership appointments support the Company’s long-term strategic plan, TBIO 2025, that emphasizes several areas for value creation across the Company including adding key in-house quality and manufacturing capabilities, deepening pulmonary expertise and increasing research and development (R&D) investments with a goal of advancing platform innovation and driving multiple programs into the clinic.

“Now is an exciting time for Translate Bio—and there is considerable momentum in the mRNA field. From vaccines to therapeutics, we have seen the substantial role that mRNA can play, and we have outlined key steps as part of TBIO 2025, our 5-year strategic plan, that we believe will enable the advancement of multiple investigational new drug applications (INDs), new pipeline programs and platform innovation,” said Ronald Renaud, chief executive officer of Translate Bio. “Adding key talent across the company to the Translate Bio team is a critical aspect of our plan and I am thrilled to share these important leadership appointments today that we believe will position us well to capture the significant potential of mRNA.”

Brendan Smith, Chief Financial Officer & Corporate Strategy

Mr. Smith was appointed Chief Financial Officer & Corporate Strategy effective April 19, 2021, his first day of employment with Translate Bio. Mr. Smith is an accomplished executive with more than two decades of experience within high-growth biopharma environments where he made significant contributions in various operations and strategy positions. A key area of strength in these roles was providing strategic financial leadership relating to long-term growth planning focused on operational efficiencies, building manufacturing and supply capabilities, and evaluation of business development opportunities and commercial planning assessments. In the role of Chief Financial Officer & Corporate Strategy, Mr. Smith will be responsible for Translate Bio’s finance and accounting, information technology, investor relations, and corporate strategy functions while working with the Company’s leadership team to ensure measured growth while executing on its strategic plan. Previously, as a Partner at Boston Consulting Group, Mr. Smith led integrated biopharma client engagements that included planning and executing on R&D strategy, operations, business development and deal diligence. Prior to that, Mr. Smith was VP, Head of Business Operations for Worldwide R&D at Pfizer where he led financial and headcount planning across discovery and development operations. In addition, as Executive Director, Head of Business Strategy and Operations for Biologics Pharmaceutical Sciences at Pfizer, Mr. Smith led manufacturing and financial operations for the company’s global biologics process development organization. Mr. Smith received a B.S. in Biochemistry from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Greg Troiano, Chief Manufacturing Officer

Mr. Troiano joined Translate Bio as SVP of Technical Operations in May of 2020, and was appointed Chief Manufacturing Officer in March 2021. Mr. Troiano is a seasoned manufacturing operations executive who has led the development of pharmaceutical products from feasibility through commercial production. In the role of CMO, Mr. Troiano will be responsible for strategic oversight of all aspects of cGMP CMC operations, including clinical supply, analytical testing, quality and engineering. Previously, he was VP of Technology and Chief Engineer at Seer, a life sciences and health data company using nanotechnology for proteomics and biomarker discovery. He was also VP of Nanomedicine Development and Manufacturing within Pfizer’s Pharmaceutical Sciences group where he led the development and manufacturing of novel nanoparticle drug products. Over his 20+ year biopharma career, Mr. Troiano supported the technical operations behind the commercialization of Gliadel® Wafer, Nutropin Depot®, Risperdal Consta®, Vivitrol® and Bydureon®. Mr. Troiano received his M.S.E. and B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University. He is an inventor on more than 20 process and equipment patents/applications and an author on over a dozen scientific publications in drug delivery. He was elected and inducted into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows in 2020 for recognition of his accomplishments in drug delivery.

Jim Sullivan, PhD, Senior Vice President, Pulmonary Discovery

Dr. Sullivan joined Translate Bio in January 2021 as Senior Vice President, Pulmonary Discovery. In this role, Dr. Sullivan leads preclinical discovery efforts for all pulmonary programs. Dr. Sullivan’s drug development experience in both basic research and clinical development (early and late stage) will strengthen Translate Bio’s translational research efforts, with a goal of bringing novel mRNA therapeutics to patients. Prior to joining Translate Bio, Dr. Sullivan was most recently at Sana Biotechnology, where he was an Executive Director focused on cell and gene therapy. In this role, Dr. Sullivan was Head of Translational Sciences and a Program Lead for novel treatment modalities for certain inherited diseases. Before Sana, Dr. Sullivan was Director at Vertex where he was an s/NDA team member for several products, including, for cystic fibrosis, Kalydeco®, Orkambi® and Symdeko®, as well as Incivek® for Hepatitis C. Dr. Sullivan was also an IND team member for multiple assets currently in clinical development to treat alpha-1-antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency and the first-ever CRISPR-based gene editing therapeutic product for the treatment of certain hemoglobinopathies. Dr. Sullivan received a B.S. in Biology from Boston College, an M.S. in Environmental Chemistry from University College Dublin, and a Ph.D. in Genome Sciences/Genetics from Boston University. He has authored more than 30 publications in peer-reviewed journals.

About Translate Bio

Translate Bio is a clinical-stage mRNA therapeutics company developing a new class of potentially transformative medicines to treat diseases caused by protein or gene dysfunction, or to prevent infectious diseases by generating protective immunity. Translate Bio is primarily focused on applying its technology to treat pulmonary diseases with a lead pulmonary candidate being evaluated as an inhaled treatment for cystic fibrosis (CF) in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial. Additional pulmonary diseases are being evaluated in discovery-stage research programs that utilize a proprietary lung delivery platform. Translate Bio also believes its technology may apply broadly to a wide range of diseases, including diseases that affect the liver. Additionally, the platform may be applied to various classes of treatments, such as therapeutic antibodies or protein degradation. Translate Bio is also pursuing the development of mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases under a collaboration with Sanofi Pasteur. For more information about the Company, please visit or on Twitter at @TranslateBio.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those regarding: Translate Bio’s expectations regarding the anticipated contributions of Mr. Smith, Mr. Troiano and Dr. Sullivan to the leadership team, its strategic plan, TBIO 2025, and the Company’s platform; Translate Bio’s plan to continue to grow the Company; Translate Bio’s belief that its strategic plan, TBIO 2025, will enable the advancement of multiple INDs, broaden its pipeline opportunities and advance platform innovation; and Translate Bio’s plans strategies and prospects for its business, including its lead development programs. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forward,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “target,” “would” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Such statements are subject to numerous important factors, risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events or results to differ materially from current expectations and beliefs, including but not limited to: the current and potential future impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Translate Bio’s business, financial condition, operations and liquidity; Translate Bio’s ability to advance the development of its platform and programs, including without limitation, under the timelines it projects, demonstrate the requisite safety and efficacy of its product candidates and replicate in clinical trials any positive findings from preclinical studies or early-stage clinical trials; the content and timing of decisions made by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, other regulatory authorities and investigational review boards at clinical trial sites, including decisions as it relates to ongoing and planned clinical trials; Translate Bio’s ability to obtain, maintain and enforce necessary patent and other intellectual property protection; the availability of significant cash required to fund operations; competitive factors; general economic and market conditions and other important risk factors set forth under the caption “Risk Factors” in Translate Bio’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on March 1, 2021 and in any other subsequent filings made with the SEC by Translate Bio. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and Translate Bio specifically disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.