Jubilant Life appoints Novartis Syed Kazmi as President, CEO of its new biotech startup

Dr Syed Kazmi joins from Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation where he was Vice President, Global Head of Business Development & Licensing for Oncology.

YARDLEY: Jubilant Life Sciences Limited has announced that Dr Syed Kazmi, Ph.D., MBA, will join its new innovative biopharmaceutical company in the U.S., Jubilant Therapeutics Inc., as President and Chief Executive Officer.

Dr Kazmi joins from Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation where he was Vice President, Global Head of Business Development & Licensing for Oncology.

Earlier this year, Jubilant Life Sciences spun off select proprietary innovation assets that are in various stages of discovery and development into Jubilant Therapeutics. The new company has a unique business model with a combination of semi-virtual setup and significant synergies with rest of Jubilant Life Sciences including strategic partnership with Jubilant Biosys, a world-class preclinical CRO.

Jubilant Therapeutics' strategy is to discover and develop novel small molecule modulators of important and previously undruggable targets primarily in oncology and establish creative partnerships to bring innovative therapeutics to patients in need.

The Company's current pipeline includes a novel dual epigenetic inhibitor of LSD1/HDAC6 to address unmet needs in liquid cancers like acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a small molecule PDL-1 therapy with comparable efficacy to large molecules and lower side effects, a small molecule PAD4 inhibitor with potential to address unmet needs in multiple auto-immune disorders and a PRMT5 inhibitor for lymphoma.

"We extend a warm welcome to Syed as the CEO of Jubilant Therapeutics," said Shyam Bhartia and Hari Bhartia, Chairman and Co-Chairman of Jubilant Life Sciences. "Syed has had an accomplished career of over 25 years in M&A, licensing, strategic collaborations, and R&D in both speciality biotech and large pharma companies. We are confident that his extensive experience will help make Jubilant Therapeutics a successful global clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with the mission of transforming the lives of patients with serious diseases."

"I am honoured to join as CEO to continue building the pipeline assets and collaborations to fast-track new innovative drugs to market. I look forward to growing Jubilant Therapeutics into a first-in-class biopharma company," said Syed Kazmi.

Read Also: Jubilant Life Sciences net profit slips 7.68 per cent to Rs 185 crore for June quarter