Codiak BioSciences Names Richard Brudnick Chief Business Officer And Head Of Strategy

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 4, 2018/PRNewswire/ — Codiak BioSciences, Inc., the leading exosome therapeutics company, today announced the appointment of Richard Brudnick as Chief Business Officer and Head of Strategy. Mr. Brudnick will serve on the executive leadership team and report to Codiak’s president and CEO, Douglas E. Williams, Ph.D.

“Over a remarkable career, Richard has been instrumental in bringing many transformational medicines to patients,” said Dr. Williams. “He has both the vision to foresee what great science can do and the perseverance to help shepherd candidates through the difficult process of development. Having known and worked with Richard for a number of years, I am delighted to have him as a new thought partner at Codiak, to help the company develop our science, our business and our culture.”

Prior to joining Codiak, Mr. Brudnick was Executive Vice President of Business Development and Alliance Management at Bioverativ, Inc., a company he helped found in 2016. Prior to Bioverativ’s acquisition by Sanofi in March 2018, Mr. Brudnick led business development efforts to build a significant pipeline in rare blood disorders including an acquisition, a multi-product collaboration and additional scientific collaborations and licenses. Mr. Brudnick joined Bioverativ at its spin-off from Biogen where, over the course of nearly 15 years, he initiated, led and completed transactions that now include much of the company’s marketed products and late-stage pipeline, including Tecfidera, Spinraza and its biosimilars joint venture with Samsung. Mr. Brudnick also was CEO of a regional pharmaceutical distribution business, which he sold to a strategic buyer, co-founded two companies, and was a strategy consultant at Bain & Company.

“Codiak has the potential to transform the treatment of many difficult diseases based upon the truly unique properties of exosomes, deep and growing insight into their therapeutic benefits and uses, and leading-edge capabilities in their manufacture,”said Mr. Brudnick. “I am looking forward to working closely with the management team to determine how to best leverage the versatility of exosomes to do the most good for patients, helping to build our internal capabilities and develop partnerships to create value.”

Mr. Brudnick earned his undergraduate degree in Management Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and his M.S. in management from the Sloan School of Management at MIT.

About Exosomes

Exosomes are nanometer-sized membrane sacs, or vesicles, that are released and received by nearly all cells. Exosomes are an ancient system of intercellular communication, through which they deliver various molecules (DNA, RNA, proteins, lipids) from cell to cell. Upon delivery, exosomal cargo can change biological functions in recipient cells according to the instructions encoded by the payload. Exosomes traffic to specific cellular targets, thereby offering the potential to deliver diverse therapies to specific cells and modulate cellular function to achieve therapeutic benefit.

Codiak BioSciences is taking advantage of the natural propensity of exosomes to deliver macromolecule payloads either on or in the exosome to cells to treat a variety of human diseases.

About Codiak BioSciences

Codiak BioSciences is the leader in the emerging field of exosome therapeutics. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., Codiak has built a proprietary technology platform for exosome engineering and manufacturing that allows for precise therapeutic targeting — opening the door to the development of therapies to treat a diverse array of diseases that are currently difficult or impossible to treat using existing methodologies.