Artiva Biotherapeutics Appoints Michael E. Faerm as Chief Financial Officer

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Artiva Biotherapeutics, Inc., an oncology company focused on developing and commercializing primary allogeneic natural killer (NK) cell therapies to treat cancer, today announced the appointment of Michael E. Faerm as Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Faerm brings more than 20 years of life sciences, equity research, and investment banking experience. In his roles with innovative biopharmaceutical companies, he led corporate finance and operational strategy, partnering and collaborations, and business development and licensing.

“I am very pleased to welcome Mike to our team. He is a very thoughtful and accomplished individual who brings a unique and valuable set of experiences to this role,” said Fred Aslan, M.D., CEO of Artiva. “Mike’s perspectives as a finance and business development industry executive and long-standing Wall Street experience as an equity research analyst and investment banker will be quite valuable to Artiva as we pursue our mission of developing effective, safe and off-the-shelf cell therapies for cancer patients.”

“I’m excited to join the Artiva team. Artiva has accomplished a lot in a short time by bringing together advanced technologies with a great team, investors, and partners,” said Mr. Faerm. “I look forward to contributing to maximizing Artiva’s differentiated ‘manufacturing first’ approach to NK cell therapies that has the potential to combine the transformative efficacy of CAR-T cell therapy with expanded accessibility and availability.”

Mr. Faerm joins Artiva from MEF Consulting LLC and Burkland Associates, where he served as a consulting and interim Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer for numerous biopharma companies. Mr. Faerm’s Wall Street experience includes Credit Suisse and Wells Fargo Securities, where he was a senior equity research analyst covering the pharmaceutical sector, and Merrill Lynch, where he was an investment banker executing a wide range of strategic and capital markets transactions in biopharma and other healthcare sectors. Mr. Faerm’s operating experience includes serving as the Chief Business Officer of Innoviva, Inc. (formerly Theravance, Inc.), where he led corporate development activities and advised on investor relations and finance strategy. Mr. Faerm also worked in business development at Forest Laboratories, sourcing and executing deals with growing biotech companies, and at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, where he led long-term financial planning and helped execute a collaboration agreement for Eylea^®, one of the top drugs by global sales.

Mr. Faerm earned his MBA from Harvard Business School, an M.S. in civil engineering from Stanford University, and a B.S. in civil engineering from Columbia University.

About Artiva Biotherapeutics

Artiva’s mission is to deliver to cancer patients highly effective cellular immunotherapies that are safe and accessible. Artiva’s pipeline includes AB-101, an ADCC enhancer NK-cell therapy for use in combination with monoclonal antibodies or innate-cell engagers. The company is currently advancing a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of AB-101 in combination with rituximab for the treatment of relapsed or refractory B-cell lymphomas. The company’s CAR-NK programs include AB-201, a novel HER2-specific CAR-NK cell therapy for the treatment of HER2+ solid tumors, and AB-202, a CD19-specific CAR-NK cell therapy for the treatment of B-cell malignancies, which are being developed under Artiva’s master license and option agreement with GC LabCell Corporation, with plans to enter clinical trials in 2022. The company has entered into therapeutic NK cell collaborations and/or license agreements with Merck and with Affimed N.V. Artiva’s AlloNK™ platform incorporates cell expansion, activation, and engineering technology developed by the company’s corporate partner, GC LabCell, a member of the GC family of companies, one of the Republic of Korea’s leading biopharmaceutical groups. Artiva is headquartered in San Diego. For additional information about Artiva Biotherapeutics, please visit www.artivabio.com.

Media:
Jessica Yingling, Ph.D.
Little Dog Communications
jessica@litldog.com, +1.858.344.8091

Investors:
Robert H. Uhl
Westwicke ICR
Robert.uhl@westwicke.com, +1.619.228.5886