Mr. Gray comes to Arsanis from Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRIS) where he held a variety of leadership positions over the past 15 years, including chief financial officer, chief business officer and chief operating officer, and was instrumental in financial and business development transactions that raised over $350 million. At Arsanis, Mr. Gray will lead financial strategy, planning and operations as well as corporate and business development initiatives as the company continues to advance its deep clinical and pre-clinical pipeline of precision monoclonal antibodies for serious infectious diseases.
“Mike Gray is joining Arsanis at an exciting time for the company. He brings valuable business development and financial operations expertise to this role as we continue to build our U.S.-based executive leadership team and advance our lead therapeutic candidate, ASN100, in the clinic to address serious Staphylococcus aureus infections,” said Tillman U. Gerngross, PhD, co-founder, Arsanis and chairman of the board.
Dr. Gerngross continued, “We believe our platform approach will allow us to introduce the next generation of monoclonal antibodies for the prevention and treatment of serious infections, while mitigating the problem of antibiotic resistance and preserving the microbiome. We are thrilled to be assembling a high-calibermanagement team of industry veterans that will lead this effort.”
Mr. Gray joins an experienced management team with a track record of success in infectious diseases, including: Eszter Nagy, MD, PhD, Arsanis co-founder and chief scientific officer; René Russo, PharmD, BCPS, chief development officer; David Mantus, PhD, executive vice president of clinical, regulatory and technical operations: and Steve Luperchio, PhD, director of clinical research and program management.
“I am pleased to join the leadership team at Arsanis as we work to further accelerate our growth and momentum following our transition to a clinical stage company,” said Mr. Gray. “I look forward to our planned advancement of lead drug candidate ASN100 to Phase II clinical testing this year as well to the continued advancement of Arsanis’ preclinical pipeline.”
Prior to Curis, Mr. Gray served as Controller and de Facto Chief Financial Officer of Reprogenesis, and was as an audit professional for Ernst & Young, LLP. He earned an MBA in corporate finance and entrepreneurial management from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College and holds a bachelor’s of science in accounting from Bryant College.
About Arsanis, Inc.
Arsanis is a clinical-stage company creating precision monoclonal antibodies for the prevention and treatment of serious bacterial infections not effectively controlled by currently available treatments. The company applies its extensive knowledge of infectious disease biology to design optimal human monoclonal antibodies that precisely and directly target pathogens and/or support host defenses against the infecting bacteria and their toxins. The company is building a broad product pipeline addressing the most important Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial pathogens threatening hospitalized and high-risk patients. Its lead therapeutic candidate, ASN100, is aimed at the prevention and treatment of serious Staphylococcus aureus infections and entered a Phase I clinical trial in the fall in 2015, with a Phase II study anticipated to begin in 2016.
Arsanis is a U.S. company headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, with European research and pre- clinical development operations headquartered in Vienna, Austria (Arsanis Biosciences GmbH). For more information, please visit the Arsanis website at www.arsanis.com.