Omega Therapeutics Appoints Kaan Certel, Ph.D., as Chief Business Officer

By: Omega Therapeutics via GlobeNewswire

May 29, 2024 at 07:00 AM EDT

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 29, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Omega Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: OMGA) (“Omega”), a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of a new class of programmable epigenomic mRNA medicines, today announced the appointment of Kaan Certel, Ph.D., as Chief Business Officer. Dr. Certel brings to Omega extensive biopharmaceutical industry experience and will be responsible for global business development activities including strategic partnerships.

“Kaan is an accomplished biopharma executive with deep expertise in business development and corporate strategy, and I am delighted to welcome him to Omega’s executive team,” said Mahesh Karande, President and Chief Executive Officer of Omega Therapeutics. “His successful track record in forging strategic partnerships, extensive experience in portfolio strategy, leadership and his deep scientific grounding will be invaluable as we build momentum in developing partnerships to advance our proprietary OMEGA platform and pipeline of programmable epigenomic mRNA therapeutics.”

Dr. Certel added, “I am thrilled to join Omega at such a pivotal time in the Company’s journey towards advancing its versatile approach to precision epigenomic control, which has the potential to address nearly any human disease. The broad applicability of the OMEGA platform provides many exciting opportunities to create high-value strategic business partnerships. I look forward to advancing our collaboration opportunities, contributing to Omega’s corporate growth, and supporting our mission to bring transformative new therapeutics to patients.”

Dr. Certel is a recognized business development leader with over 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and academia. Most recently, he served as the Chief Business Officer at BioCity Biopharma, where he led the expansion of the global business development function and coordinated efforts to establish collaborations for the development of pipeline assets. Previously, Dr. Certel was the Global Head of Oncology External Innovation at Sanofi, where he played a pivotal role in strengthening the oncology portfolio by assessing in-licensing opportunities and spearheading numerous strategic collaborations. Notably, he also played a key role in the successful launch of X-Chem Pharmaceuticals’ immuno-oncology spin-off, overseeing scientific strategic development, pipeline generation, project management and talent acquisition. Dr. Certel received a Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Iowa and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

About Omega Therapeutics
Omega Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of a new class of programmable epigenomic mRNA medicines to treat or cure a broad range of diseases. By pre-transcriptionally modulating gene expression, Omega’s approach enables precision epigenomic control of nearly all human genes, including historically undruggable and difficult-to-treat targets, without altering native nucleic acid sequences. Founded in 2017 by Flagship Pioneering following breakthrough research by world-renowned experts in the field of epigenetics, Omega is led by a seasoned and accomplished leadership team with a track record of innovation and operational excellence. The Company is committed to revolutionizing genomic medicine and has a pipeline of therapeutic candidates derived from its OMEGA platform spanning oncology, regenerative medicine, and multigenic diseases including inflammatory and cardiometabolic conditions.

For more information, visit omegatherapeutics.com, or follow us on X 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 surrounding the potential of our development candidates, developing strategic partnerships; and Dr. Certel’s impact on 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 controllers 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; volatility in capital markets and general economic conditions; 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; potential delays in and unforeseen costs arising from our clinical trials; 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; difficulties manufacturing the novel technology on which our epigenomic controller 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 Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, 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.

Contact
Investor contact:
Eva Stroynowski
617.949.4370
estroynowski@omegatx.com

Media contact:
Mollie Godbout
LifeSci Communications
646.847.1401
mgodbout@lifescicomms.com