Ms. Chen, portfolio manager at Cormorant Asset Management, and Dr. Hambleton, a physician-turned-biotech executive, bring decades of experience to their new roles
SAN DIEGO, March 29, 2021 – Erasca, a company whose mission is to erase cancer, announced the appointment of Bihua Chen and Julie Hambleton, M.D., to its board of directors.
“We are thrilled to welcome industry veterans like Bihua and Julie to Erasca,” said Jonathan E. Lim, M.D., Erasca’s chairman, CEO and co-founder. “Bihua, one of the top biotechnology investors, and Julie, a leading oncologist with broad industry experience, bring tremendous business and scientific acumen to help advance our pipeline, and we are honored that they have joined us on our mission.”
Erasca’s portfolio of precision oncology medicines has been built through in-house drug discovery and pipeline expansion through strategic acquisition and licensing collaborations with world-class academic institutions and biopharmaceutical companies.
“As an early investor in Erasca, I continue to be impressed by progress the company has made with its portfolio of potentially first-in-class and best-in-class programs,” said Ms. Chen. “I am excited to deepen my engagement with Erasca through this fiduciary role.”
Dr. Hambleton added, “Erasca has built a deep pipeline that addresses significant unmet medical needs. I am confident that this team will execute to bring novel treatments to the millions of patients suffering from cancer.”
About Ms. Chen
Ms. Chen is the founder of Cormorant Asset Management, LP (“Cormorant”), an investment firm focused on innovative biotechnology, medical technology and life science companies with assets under management of over $3 billion. Ms. Chen manages Cormorant’s public fund as well as its private funds. Prior to founding Cormorant, Ms. Chen managed a separately managed account focused on the healthcare sector as a sub-adviser to a large, multi-strategy hedge fund based in New York.
Ms. Chen obtained an MBA from the Wharton School and an M.S. in molecular biology from the Graduate School of Medical Sciences at Cornell Medical College. Ms. Chen also holds a B.S. in genetics and genetic engineering from Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
About Dr. Hambleton
Dr. Hambleton is a senior biotechnology executive with over 20 years of experience in clinical drug development from pre-clinical through Phase 4 and post-marketing studies. She has extensive experience working with regulatory agencies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and in the filings of Investigational New Drug (IND) applications, Biologics License Applications (BLA) and Special Protocol Assessments (SPA). Dr. Hambleton recently served as interim CEO at Arch Oncology. Previously, she served as senior vice president, chief medical officer, and head of development at IDEAYA Biosciences, an oncology company. Prior to her role at IDEAYA, she held the positions of vice president and head of U.S. Medical at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where she oversaw medical & health economic and outcomes research activities in support of the oncology, immuno-oncology, specialty and cardiovascular marketed portfolios; executive vice president and chief medical officer at Five Prime Therapeutics; and vice president of clinical development at Clovis Oncology. Dr. Hambleton began her industry career at Genentech, most recently as group medical director, global clinical development. She also serves on the boards of directors of IGM Biosciences, Inc., and SpringWorks Therapeutics, Inc., both publicly traded biotechnology companies, as well as Accent Therapeutics, a privately held biotechnology company.
Dr. Hambleton completed her medical and hematology-oncology training at the University of California, San Francisco, where she then served on faculty from 1993 to 2003, and was Board-certified in hematology and internal medicine. She received her M.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and a B.S. from Duke University.
About Erasca
At Erasca, our mission is embedded in our name: To erase cancer. Energized by recent scientific discoveries in drugging various biological drivers of cancer, we are advancing multiple programs that shut down key cancer pathways to solve oncology’s hardest problems. We have assembled a proven team and joined forces with world-class collaborators who embrace our ambitious goals. We also are pursuing additional pipeline expansion opportunities through academic and biopharmaceutical collaborations. Founded in 2018 and headquartered in San Diego, Erasca has raised $320 million in financing from investors who share the company’s bold mission, including ARCH Venture Partners, City Hill Ventures and Cormorant Asset Management. For more information, please visit www.erasca.com.
Erasca is a trademark of Erasca, Inc.
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