UNITY Biotechnology Announces CFO Transition

SAN FRANCISCO, July 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- UNITY Biotechnology, Inc. (“UNITY”) [NASDAQ:UBX], a biotechnology company developing therapeutics to extend healthspan by slowing, halting or reversing diseases of aging, today announced that Bob Goeltz, chief financial officer, will leave the company at the end of July 2020 to pursue a new opportunity. Effective August 1, 2020, Lynne Sullivan, former senior vice president of Biogen, Inc. (“Biogen”), will become UNITY’s interim chief financial officer.

“I want to thank Bob for his many contributions and wish him success in his next endeavors,” said Anirvan Ghosh, Ph.D., chief executive officer of UNITY. “We have a stellar finance team at UNITY, and are fortunate to have someone of Lynne's stature to step in quickly and efficiently to lead the group. Having worked with Lynne in my prior role at Biogen, I can attest to the strength of her reputation within the industry, and the wealth of corporate finance and business development experience she brings to UNITY."

“I am incredibly excited by the opportunity to work with Anirvan once again,” said Lynne Sullivan. “I have been impressed by the bold vision and the advancement of the drug development programs at UNITY, and this is a vital time to get involved. The second half of 2020 is a very important period for UNITY, with a Phase 2 data readout from the UBX0101 program in osteoarthritis, as well as the commencement of Phase 1 studies for its second drug program, UBX1325, targeting age-related diseases of the eye.”

Lynne Sullivan brings more than 20 years of experience working in the pharma and biotech industry. Ms. Sullivan worked at Biogen for over 10 years, most recently serving as senior vice president of finance with global responsibility for corporate finance, financial planning and analysis and corporate tax. Ms. Sullivan is currently a member of the board of directors, as well as chair of the audit committees, of three publicly traded biopharmaceutical companies: Solid Biosciences, Inc., resTORbio, Inc. and BiomX Inc. Ms. Sullivan also serves on the board of Inozyme Pharma, Inc., a private biopharmaceutical company. Ms. Sullivan served as the chief financial officer for Compass Therapeutics. She received an M.S. in taxation from Bentley University and a B.S.B.A. from Suffolk University. Ms. Sullivan was a Certified Public Accountant for over 20 years.

About UNITY
UNITY is developing therapeutics to extend healthspan with an initial focus on cellular senescence. UNITY believes that the accumulation of senescent cells is a fundamental mechanism of aging and a driver of many common age-related diseases. Cellular senescence is a natural biological state in which a cell permanently halts division. As senescent cells accumulate with age, they begin secreting inflammatory factors, proteases, fibrotic factors, and growth factors, that disturb the tissue micro-environment. This collection of secreted proteins is referred to as the Senescence Associated Secretory Phenotype, or SASP. UNITY is developing senolytic medicines to eliminate senescent cells and thereby stop the production of the SASP, which UNITY believes addresses a root cause of age-related diseases. By stopping the production of the SASP at its source, UNITY believes senolytic medicines could slow, halt, or reverse diseases such as osteoarthritis and age-related eye diseases. More information is available at www.unitybiotechnology.com or follow us on Twitter.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements including statements related to the potential for UNITY to develop therapeutics to extend healthspan, statements related to the timing of the initiation of clinical trials and the timing of the release of data from clinical trials. These statements involve substantial known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements, including the risk that the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic may continue to negatively impact the development of preclinical and clinical drug candidates, including delaying or disrupting the enrollment of patients in clinical trials, risks relating to the uncertainties inherent in the drug development process and risks relating to UNITY’s understanding of senescence biology. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. Actual results or events could differ materially from the plans, intentions and expectations disclosed in the forward-looking statements we make. The forward-looking statements in this press release represent our views as of the date of this release. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause our views to change. However, while we may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we have no current intention of doing so except to the extent required by applicable law. You should, therefore, not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this release. For a further description of the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those expressed in these forward-looking statements, as well as risks relating to the business of the Company in general, see UNITY’s most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2020, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 7, 2020, as well as other documents that may be filed by UNITY from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

This press release concerns drug candidates that are under clinical investigation and which have not yet been approved for marketing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. They are currently limited by Federal law to investigational use, and no representation is made as to their safety or effectiveness for the purposes for which they are being investigated. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.

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Source: Unity Biotechnology, Inc.