Sitryx announces leadership transition
- Iain Kilty appointed Chief Executive Officer
- Neil Weir to assume role of President and remain on Board of Directors
Oxford, UK – 2 July 2024 – Sitryx Therapeutics (“the Company”), a biopharmaceutical company focused on modulating immune cell metabolism to advance a new generation of therapies for chronic autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, today announces key leadership changes to support the Company’s next stage of growth. Iain Kilty, Ph.D., currently Sitryx’s Chief Scientific Officer, has been appointed as the Company’s new Chief Executive Officer and Board member, effective 2 July 2024. Neil Weir assumes the role of President and will remain a member of the Board.
Iain brings to the CEO role more than 25 years of global biopharmaceutical industry experience, including 22 years at Pfizer working across the drug discovery paradigm, and in increasingly senior leadership roles in the pharma and biotech sector. His significant organisational and scientific expertise, and extensive industry network, will play a critical role in enhancing Sitryx’s discovery pipeline and advancing its proprietary assets into the clinic, a key focus of the Company during its next stage of growth.
Neil has led Sitryx for more than six years, overseeing a period of significant growth and many achievements, including a global licensing and research collaboration with Lilly, established in 2020 and worth up to $1.1 billion. The first candidate from that partnership moved into Lilly’s own Phase 1 pipeline in early 2024. Neil also secured the Company’s strong financial position, leading successful financings in excess of $75 million to advance Sitryx’s broad proprietary pipeline of first- and best-in-class therapies. In April 2024 Sitryx nominated its first clinical development candidate, SYX-5219 for atopic dermatitis, a major milestone in Sitryx’s transition from a research organisation to a clinical stage company. In assuming the role of President, Neil will continue to support the Company in its next phase.
Pierre Legault, Chairman of Sitryx, commented: “On behalf of the Board I would like to extend a warm welcome to our new CEO Iain Kilty, a highly respected industry executive with a deep understanding of drug development and major autoimmune indications with high unmet need. He is exceptionally qualified to lead Sitryx during this next exciting chapter, as we focus on continuing to build our promising pipeline of best- and first-in-class therapies and bringing our proprietary assets into the clinic.
“I want to thank Neil for his excellent leadership and for establishing Sitryx as a leader in the field of immunometabolism. We are delighted that he will continue to support the business in his role as President and look forward to working together as we drive towards the clinic.”
Neil Weir, outgoing Chief Executive Officer, commented: “I am hugely proud of the team here at Sitryx who, in six years, have translated early-stage scientific excellence into a pipeline of best-in-class therapies with the potential to address some of the most challenging autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. I am very pleased to hand over to Iain, whose industry, clinical and organisational expertise make him the ideal person to drive Sitryx’s strategy going forward. I look forward to working alongside him and the exceptional team at Sitryx, to achieve the longer-term goals of the business.”
Iain Kilty, incoming Chief Executive Officer of Sitryx, commented: “I have had the great pleasure of working with some of the brightest minds in the industry here at Sitryx and feel hugely privileged to lead the Company as CEO. Rapidly progressing our lead asset, SYX-5219, towards clinical development, alongside the clinical advances of our partnered program with Lilly, marks a significant milestone for the Company. I look forward to building on the progress delivered under Neil’s exemplary leadership, and to achieving our ultimate goal of developing a next generation of therapies for chronic autoimmune and inflammatory diseases that can drive long term disease remission and improved outcomes for patients.”
Sitryx founding Board member and Managing Partner at SV Health Investors, Kate Bingham commented: “We have been huge supporters of both the world class science and leadership team at Sitryx from day one. We have watched as the Company has successfully navigated its way from early-stage start-up to a more mature business, with promising, differentiated assets and large pharma validation. This is in no small part due to Neil Weir’s impressive leadership. Going forward we have huge confidence in Sitryx’s new CEO, Iain Kilty, to lead the business and maintain its impressive trajectory. Iain knows Sitryx and the wider industry inside out and has the requisite skills to shape the future direction and strategy of the Company. We look forward to his expert leadership and to continued progress in the months and years ahead.”
Iain joined Sitryx as Chief Scientific Officer in 2021 and is a Venture Partner at SV Health Investors, in addition to sitting on science advisory boards at multiple companies. He graduated with a BA and MA Cantab in Biochemistry from Jesus College, University of Cambridge, UK, before completing his Ph.D. in the Breast Cancer Research Laboratories at the University of Liverpool, UK.
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For more information about Sitryx please contact:
ICR Consilium
Mary-Jane Elliott, David Daley, Sue Stuart
+44 (0)20 3709 5700
Sitryx@consilium-comms.com
About Sitryx
Sitryx is a biopharmaceutical company focused on modulating immune cell metabolism to advance a new generation of first- and best-in-class disease-modifying therapies for chronic autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Sitryx's proprietary science is led by a highly experienced management team and supported by world class academic founders. Sitryx was founded by internationally renowned researchers in the field of immunology and metabolism, including Houman Ashrafian, Luke O'Neill, Jonathan Powell, Jeff Rathmell, Michael Rosenblum and Paul Peter Tak. Together they have published more than 1,000 papers in the field, making multiple key breakthroughs in our understanding of how the energetic status of immune cells is critical in regulating disease activity.
Sitryx was founded in 2018 with seed funding from SV Health Investors and has raised in excess of $75 million to date from an international syndicate of specialist investors including SV Health Investors, Sofinnova Partners, Oxford Science Enterprises, Longwood Fund, Lilly and GSK. In 2020, Sitryx formed an exclusive global licensing and research collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company. The Company has a broad pipeline of small molecules against novel targets in major autoimmune indications with high unmet need. Sitryx is headquartered in Oxford, UK. For more information, please visit www.sitryx.com.
