Cygnal Appoints Elaine Caughey as Chief Business Officer

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 19, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Cygnal Therapeutics, the first company to build a platform to develop drugs in the new field of exoneural biology, today appointed Elaine Caughey to the role of chief business officer. In this role, Ms. Caughey will drive the company's business development and corporate strategy, alliance management, and operations.

"Cygnal has been growing fast, and we're rapidly advancing several programs across oncology, inflammation, and other initial areas of disease," said Pearl Huang, Ph.D., CEO of Cygnal Therapeutics. "Elaine brings to bear some 20 years of experience in corporate and growth strategy, organizational operations, partnerships, and business development. We're thrilled that she's joined our team, and we look forward to her contributions to Cygnal's promising path forward."

Throughout her career, Ms. Caughey has executed partnerships and acquisitions, invested in young companies, and built and led teams in commercial operations. She joins Cygnal after serving as a consultant to The Blackstone Group, where she worked on late stage life sciences investments. Previously, Ms. Caughey spent a number of years at Biogen as a senior director of business development, where she executed partnerships in oncology and led several in-licensing partnerships and acquisitions to expand Biogen's immunology pipeline. She also served as head of strategy and operations for global market access, building the market access and pricing teams within Biogen as well as taking part in commercial drug launches in multiple sclerosis, hemophilia, and neurodegeneration. Prior to Biogen, she worked in business development and corporate venture at CYTYC Corporation, which was acquired by Hologic. Ms. Caughey spent the early part of her career in venture capital, playing an important role in incubating companies as well as driving investments in early stage biotechnology and device startups. She holds a BA in economics from Wellesley College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

"Exoneural biology represents a bold new area of science. I am drawn to Cygnal's platform and approach to creating new therapeutics for patients in need, and I am especially excited to join this team of scientists and business leaders to advance exoneural medicines in cancer, inflammation, and immunology," Ms. Caughey said.

To learn more about Cygnal, please visit the company's website at www.cygnaltx.com.

About Cygnal Therapeutics
Founded by Flagship Pioneering in 2017, Cygnal Therapeutics is the first company to build a platform to develop drugs in the new field of exoneural biology, an unprecedented way of thinking about nerves and neural pathways outside of traditional neurobiology. Exoneural biology is broadly implicated in human health and disease. Fueled by its Exoneural Medicine Platform™, Cygnal is creating new medicines across multiple therapeutic areas, starting with cancer and inflammatory diseases. Learn more at www.cygnaltx.com.