Editas Medicine Expands Senior Management Team

-- Appoints Gerald Cox, M.D., Ph.D., as Chief Medical Officer --

-- Kenneth LeClair, Ph.D. joins as Vice President, Technical Development and Manufacturing and Semiramis Trotto joins as Vice President, Human Resources --

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 03, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Editas Medicine, Inc. (NASDAQ:EDIT), a leading genome editing company, announced today the appointment of Gerald Cox, M.D., Ph.D., as Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Cox is one of the leading clinicians in the industry of developing innovative medicines for genetic diseases, having brought multiple products through development to approval. He was most recently Vice President of Rare Disease Clinical Development at Sanofi Genzyme and has spent more than 20 years as a practicing clinical geneticist at Boston Children’s Hospital. In addition, Editas further expanded its leadership team with the addition of Kenneth LeClair, Ph.D., as Vice President, Technical Development and Manufacturing and Semiramis Trotto as Vice President, Human Resources.

“As we build Editas Medicine for the long-term, Gerry, Ken and Semi all bring critical technical and leadership capabilities to our team,” said Katrine Bosley, President and Chief Executive Officer of Editas Medicine. “As Chief Medical Officer, Gerry comes to Editas with an international reputation for excellence in the development of therapies for genetic diseases, and he has extensive experience in all stages of clinical development and engagement with regulatory agencies. In addition, his background as a clinical geneticist is ideal for the development of genome editing medicines.”

“I am excited to be joining the Editas Medicine team at this important and unique juncture in the field of genomic medicine,” said Dr. Cox. “With its comprehensive platform, advancing product pipeline and commitment to treating patients with serious genetic diseases, Editas is well-positioned to advance the science of genome editing and to develop unprecedented medicines to treat many different diseases.”

Dr. Cox held senior clinical development roles at Sanofi Genzyme (formerly Genzyme Corporation) for over 15 years, most recently as Vice President of Rare Disease Clinical Development. He was instrumental in the development and approval of treatments for lysosomal storage disorders, including the enzyme replacement therapies Aldurazyme® (iduronidase) for Mucopolysaccharidosis type I in 2003, Myozyme® (alglucosidase alfa) for Pompe disease in 2006, and Elaprase® (idursulfase) for Mucopolysaccharidosis type II in Japan and the Asia Pacific region in 2007, and the substrate reduction therapy Cerdelga® (eliglustat) for Gaucher disease type 1 in 2014. Dr. Cox received his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of California at San Diego and his B.A. from Harvard College. He continues to serve part-time in his role as Staff Physician in Genetics at Boston Children’s Hospital, where he previously completed an internship and residency in pediatrics followed by clinical and post-doctoral research fellowships in genetics and was Director of the Medical Genomics Mapping Facility. Dr. Cox is also an Instructor in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.

Ken LeClair, Ph.D., joins Editas from Novartis Pharmaceuticals AG where he was Executive Director, Technical Research and Development of the Cell and Gene Therapies Unit. He has over 20 years of industry experience in molecular biology, process development and analytical techniques for developing innovative cell and gene therapy and biologics products. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University and his A.B. from Bowdoin College. Dr. LeClair was also a post-doctoral research fellow at the MIT Center for Cancer Research and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at the Harvard Medical School.

Semi Trotto was most recently the Vice President of Human Resources, Oncology for Baxalta where she held a leadership role in establishing and building the company prior to its acquisition by Shire Plc. Earlier, she spent over a decade at Bristol-Myers Squibb where she was responsible for human resources across a number of different business functions in both the U.S. and internationally. Ms. Trotto received her M.B.A from Cornell University and her B.S. from Carnegie Mellon University.

About Editas Medicine

Editas Medicine is a leading genome editing company dedicated to treating patients with genetically defined diseases by correcting their disease-causing genes. The company was founded by world leaders in genome editing, and its mission is to translate the promise of genome editing science into a broad class of transformative genomic medicines to benefit the greatest number of patients.

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