Flagship Pioneering Announces Appointment of Luisa Salter-Cid as Chief Scientific Officer of Pioneering Medicines

Flagship Pioneering, the life science platforms company, today announced the appointment of Luisa Salter-Cid, Ph.D., as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of Pioneering Medicines, a new division that is conceiving and developing a broad portfolio of life-changing treatments for patients.

Dr. Salter-Cid brings more than 20 years of experience in drug discovery and a strong track record of advancing programs to the clinic. She most recently served as CSO at Gossamer Bio and previously spent 13 years at Bristol Myers Squibb in drug discovery leadership roles.

“Luisa’s extensive experience in drug discovery and strategic R&D leadership will be extremely valuable to the Pioneering Medicines team and to Flagship at large,” said Noubar Afeyan, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering. “As CSO of Pioneering Medicines, she will partner with leaders across Flagship’s portfolio, providing important insights and leveraging their unique and innovative platforms and technologies to conceive and advance novel therapeutics.”

Alongside the Pioneering Medicines leadership team, Dr. Salter-Cid will be responsible for pioneering a portfolio of groundbreaking medicines sourced from the wide spectrum of scientific platforms within Flagship’s ecosystem of companies. She will also build a research capability within Pioneering Medicines and provide strategic leadership and oversight to all research programs to ensure the development of innovative, efficient, and safe medicines that address significant patient needs.

“With her extensive scientific expertise across both therapeutic areas and modalities, Luisa will be essential in shaping our portfolio, advancing our programs to the clinic, and achieving our mission to benefit more patients, sooner. I am delighted to welcome her to our expanding Pioneering Medicines’ team,” said Paul Biondi, Executive Partner at Flagship Pioneering and President of Pioneering Medicines.

“I’m excited to join Pioneering Medicines and create novel medicines from the vast array of innovative technologies available within Flagship,” said Dr. Salter-Cid. “There is a tremendous opportunity for Pioneering Medicines to address a broad range of diseases through these platforms, and I look forward to exploring many possibilities.”

About Luisa Salter-Cid
Dr. Salter-Cid is a highly respected scientist and drug discovery and development leader with more than 20 years of experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries and a strong track record of bringing programs to the clinic.

Dr. Salter-Cid joins Pioneering Medicines from Gossamer Bio where she was Chief Scientific Officer responsible for building the company’s portfolio of immunology and immuno-oncology clinical and new discovery programs. Prior to this, she was at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) for 13 years, where she was most recently Vice President and Head of Immunology, Small Molecule Immuno-Oncology, and Genomics Discovery. In this role she oversaw several biology groups focused on target validation and development of innovative biologic and small-molecule therapeutics to address significant unmet needs in autoimmune diseases and cancer. During her time at BMS, she led teams that advanced more than 20 compounds into clinical development. Dr. Salter-Cid was Chair of the Immunoscience Target Science Team and a core member of Early Development, Strategy and Licensing teams for both Immunology and Immuno-Oncology. Additionally, she was the scientific lead on several of BMS’ acquisitions and licensing deals and sat on multiple Joint Research Committees and Scientific Advisory Boards. Prior to joining BMS, Dr. Salter-Cid was a Senior Project Leader at La Jolla Pharmaceuticals where she led discovery projects. She also held positions at Genset Corp and Johnson & Johnson.

Dr. Salter-Cid has authored over 80 publications and patents and holds a Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Miami.

About Pioneering Medicines
Initiated in 2020, Pioneering Medicines’ mandate is to build a world-class biopharmaceutical R&D capability to conceive and develop a broad portfolio of life-changing treatments for patients. By harnessing the power of Flagship’s multiple scientific platforms, Pioneering Medicines will create and advance novel medicines that deliver benefits to more patients, sooner.

For additional information, visit www.pioneeringmedicines.com.

About Flagship Pioneering
Flagship Pioneering conceives, creates, resources, and develops first-in-category life science platform companies to transform human health and sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, the firm has, through its Flagship Labs unit, applied its unique hypothesis-driven innovation process to originate and foster more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in over $80 billion in aggregate value. To date, Flagship has deployed over $2.3 billion in capital toward the founding and growth of its pioneering companies alongside more than $19 billion of follow-on investments from other institutions. The current Flagship ecosystem comprises 41 transformative companies, including Axcella Health (NASDAQ: AXLA), Codiak BioSciences (NASDAQ: CDAK) Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ: DNLI), Evelo Biosciences (NASDAQ: EVLO), Foghorn Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FHTX), Indigo Ag, Kaleido Biosciences (NASDAQ: KLDO), Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA), Rubius Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RUBY), Sana Biotechnology (NASDAQ: SANA), Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB), and Sigilon Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SGTX).