Omega Therapeutics Announces Appointment of Joshua Reed as Chief Financial Officer

Rhea-AI Summary

Omega Therapeutics (NASDAQ: OMGA) announced the appointment of Joshua Reed as Chief Financial Officer effective May 23, 2022. Reed brings extensive experience from Aldeyra Therapeutics and Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he managed finance and operations. Current CFO Roger Sawhney, M.D., will transition to Chief Business Officer. This leadership change follows several key hires aimed at enhancing the company's capacity to drive its innovative mRNA-based epigenetic therapies forward. The company remains focused on advancing its pipeline across multiple disease areas.

Positive

• Joshua Reed's appointment as CFO brings expertise from his previous roles, potentially strengthening Omega's financial strategy.
• Leadership change aims to focus on business development, enhancing the execution of the epigenomic programming platform.

Negative

• Potential concerns regarding continuity in financial leadership due to transition from Roger Sawhney to Joshua Reed.
• -

Roger Sawhney, M.D. to serve as Chief Business Officer

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Omega Therapeutics (NASDAQ: OMGA) (Omega), a development-stage biotechnology company pioneering the first systematic approach to use mRNA therapeutics as a new class of programmable epigenetic medicines by leveraging its OMEGA Epigenomic Programming™ platform, today announced the appointment of Joshua Reed as Chief Financial Officer, effective May 23, 2022. Roger Sawhney, M.D., Omega's Chief Financial Officer, will serve as Chief Business Officer.

"We are excited to welcome Joshua to our management team. We expect that Joshua's track record of success and diverse experience across many disciplines including finance and operations will be important factors in Omega's future success. This news follows a number of key hires that we have announced this year, providing Omega with a strong and talented senior leadership team with the experience needed to execute on the promise of our pipeline and platform," said Mahesh Karande, President and Chief Executive Officer of Omega Therapeutics. "I am equally excited for Roger to be able to focus on our business development efforts as we look to accelerate the potential of our epigenomic programming platform to deliver transformative therapies to patients."

"I am thrilled to be joining an exciting company with an innovative platform and a strong leadership team with the potential to be impactful across a wide-range of diseases and conditions," said Mr. Reed. "I look forward to working closely with our Board of Directors, management team and our shareholders to continue advancing our science."

Mr. Reed most recently served as Chief Financial Officer of Aldeyra Therapeutics, where he was responsible for finance, business development, investor relations, compliance, human resources, and information technology. During his time at Aldeyra, Mr. Reed led multiple capital raises, oversaw the company's interactions with current and prospective investors and managed all aspects of the company's financial close, including quarterly and annual SEC filings. Before Aldeyra, Mr. Reed held a variety of finance roles of increasing responsibility at Bristol-Myers Squibb, most recently serving as Vice President and Head of Finance Operations for the United States and Puerto Rico. While at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Mr. Reed also led financial planning and analysis and worked on various acquisitions, divestitures, alliances, and collaboration agreements. Earlier in his career, Mr. Reed worked at JP Morgan Chase, Credit Suisse First Boston, and Chase Manhattan Bank. Mr. Reed received his Bachelor of Science in Finance from Rutgers University and his Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan.  

About Omega Therapeutics
Omega Therapeutics, founded by Flagship Pioneering, is a development-stage biotechnology company pioneering the first systematic approach to use mRNA therapeutics as a new class of programmable epigenetic medicines. The company's OMEGA Epigenomic Programming™ platform harnesses the power of epigenetics, the mechanism that controls gene expression and every aspect of an organism's life from cell genesis, growth, and differentiation to cell death. Using a suite of technologies, paired with Omega's process of systematic, rational, and integrative drug design, the deterministic OMEGA platform enables control of fundamental epigenetic processes to correct the root cause of disease by returning aberrant gene expression to a normal range without altering native nucleic acid sequences. Omega's modular and programmable mRNA epigenetic medicines, Omega Epigenomic Controllers™, target specific epigenomic loci within insulated genomic domains, EpiZips™, from amongst thousands of unique, mapped, and validated genome-wide DNA-sequences, with high specificity to durably tune single or multiple genes to treat and cure diseases through Precision Genomic Control™. Omega is currently advancing a broad pipeline of development candidates spanning a range of disease areas, including oncology, regenerative medicine, multigenic diseases including immunology, and select monogenic diseases.

For more information, visit omegatherapeutics.com, or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including without limitation statements regarding the potential of the OMEGA Epigenomic Programming platform, the company's intention to advance its programs into the clinic, and the continued growth and scale up of the company. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the following: the novel technology on which our product candidates are based makes it difficult to predict the time and cost of preclinical and clinical development and subsequently obtaining regulatory approval, if at all; the substantial development and regulatory risks associated with epigenomic controller machines due to the novel and unprecedented nature of this new category of medicines; our limited operating history; the incurrence of significant losses and the fact that we expect to continue to incur significant additional losses for the foreseeable future; our need for substantial additional financing; our investments in research and development efforts that further enhance the OMEGA platform, and their impact on our results; uncertainty regarding preclinical development, especially for a new class of medicines such as epigenomic controllers; the fact that our product candidates may be associated with serious adverse events, undesirable side effects or have other properties that could halt their regulatory development, prevent their regulatory approval, limit their commercial potential, or result in significant negative consequences; the impact of increased demand for the manufacture of mRNA and LNP based vaccines to treat COVID-19 on our development plans; difficulties manufacturing the novel technology on which our OEC candidates are based; our ability to adapt to rapid and significant technological change; our reliance on third parties for the manufacture of materials; our ability to successfully acquire and establish our own manufacturing facilities and infrastructure; our reliance on a limited number of suppliers for lipid excipients used in our product candidates; our ability to advance our product candidates to clinical development; and our ability to obtain, maintain, enforce and adequately protect our intellectual property rights. These and other important factors discussed under the caption "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2021 and our other filings with the SEC could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements made in this press release. Any such forward-looking statements represent management's estimates as of the date of this press release. While we may elect to update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we disclaim any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause our views to change.

Contacts

Media contact:
Jason Braco
LifeSci Communications
646.751.4361
jbraco@lifescicomms.com 

Investor contact:
Kevin Murphy
Argot Partners
212.600.1902
ArgotOmega@argotpartners.com 

 

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SOURCE Omega Therapeutics

FAQ

Who is Joshua Reed and what is his role at Omega Therapeutics?

Joshua Reed has been appointed as Chief Financial Officer of Omega Therapeutics, effective May 23, 2022, bringing extensive finance and operational experience.

What position will Roger Sawhney hold after the management change?

Roger Sawhney will transition from Chief Financial Officer to Chief Business Officer.

What are the expected impacts of the new CFO on OMGA's financial strategy?

Joshua Reed's extensive background is anticipated to strengthen Omega's financial strategy and support its innovative initiatives.

What is Omega Therapeutics' focus moving forward?

Omega Therapeutics is focused on advancing its pipeline of mRNA-based epigenetic therapies across various disease areas.