Denali Therapeutics Appoints Katie Peng as Chief Commercial Officer

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Sept. 27, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Denali Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: DNLI), a biopharmaceutical company developing a broad portfolio of product candidates engineered to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) for neurodegenerative diseases, today announced the appointment of

Katie Peng to the newly created role of Chief Commercial Officer.

“We are excited about Katie joining Denali to build and lead our commercial organization. She is a recognized industry leader with an exceptional track record of successfully building and leading commercial teams and launching novel medicines, including for neurological and rare diseases,” said Denali’s Chief Executive Officer, Ryan Watts, Ph.D. “Katie’s expertise will be tremendously valuable to Denali as we advance our clinical pipeline, including programs for Parkinson’s disease and Hunter syndrome (MPS II) into late-stage clinical development. Katie’s leadership in building our commercial efforts as we expand organizationally and geographically will be key to bringing medicines to people living with neurodegenerative diseases and our ultimate goal to defeat degeneration.”

Ms. Peng most recently served as the Senior Vice President, Head of the OMNI Business Unit at Genentech where she was responsible for the neurology, ophthalmology, immunology, respiratory, and rare diseases portfolio representing approximately $14 billion in revenue, and served as part of Genentech’s commercial leadership team. In her nearly two decades at Genentech and Roche, Ms. Peng held a number of senior leadership positions including General Manager for Roche in the Asia Pacific region leading the country organizations in Taiwan and Singapore. Ms. Peng has successfully launched multiple products in neurology, oncology, and rare disease notably including OCREVUS® (ocrelizumab), a therapeutic monoclonal antibody approved for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, Evrysdi® (risdiplam), a medicine used to treat spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) in adults and children, and HEMLIBRA® (emicizumab-kxwh), a bispecific antibody for the treatment of people with hemophilia A. Her commercial experience spans marketing, sales, market access, medical affairs and business planning.

“I am thrilled to join Denali’s leadership team and build the commercial organization,” said Ms. Peng. “Neurodegenerative diseases are one of the biggest unmet medical needs of our time and, like in oncology two decades ago, we are at a time of exceptional progress fueled by new genetic insights and biomarker-informed development. Denali is at the vanguard of this revolution, with a broad pipeline of product candidates with significant promise, and I am excited to contribute to building out critical functions within Denali to help bring life-saving medicines to people with neurodegenerative diseases.”

Prior to Genentech, Ms. Peng held several commercial roles at Amgen and began her career as a research scientist at Allergan. Ms. Peng holds a BA from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University.

About Denali Therapeutics
Denali Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company developing a broad portfolio of product candidates engineered to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) for neurodegenerative diseases. Denali pursues new treatments by rigorously assessing genetically validated targets, engineering delivery across the BBB and guiding development through biomarkers that demonstrate target and pathway engagement. Denali is based in South San Francisco. For additional information, please visit www.denalitherapeutics.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements expressed or implied in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Denali's progress, business plans, business strategy, product candidates, planned preclinical studies and clinical trials and expected milestones; and statements made by Denali’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Commercial Officer. Actual results are subject to risks and uncertainties and may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of these risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to, risks related to: any and all risks to Denali’s business and operations caused directly or indirectly by the evolving COVID-19 pandemic; risk of the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstance that could give rise to the termination of Denali’s collaboration agreements; Denali’s early stages of clinical drug development; Denali’s and its partners’ ability to complete the development and, if approved, commercialization of its product candidates; Denali’s reliance on third parties for the manufacture and supply of its product candidates for clinical trials; Denali’s and it's partners' ability to conduct or complete clinical trials on expected timelines; the uncertainty that product candidates will receive regulatory approval necessary to be commercialized; Denali’s ability to continue to create a pipeline of product candidates or develop commercially successful products; Denali’s ability to obtain, maintain, or protect intellectual property rights related to its product candidates; implementation of Denali’s strategic plans for its business, product candidates and blood-brain barrier platform technology; and other risks, including those described in Denali’s most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on August 4, 2021, Denali’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 26, 2021, and Denali’s future reports to be filed with the SEC. The forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to Denali as of the date hereof. Denali disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.