iECURE Expands Leadership Team with the Appointment of Mark Semanick as VP and Head of Technical Operations and Brad Dickerson as VP of Project Management & Patient Advocacy

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--iECURE, a gene editing company focused on developing therapies that utilize mutation-agnostic in vivo gene insertion, or knock-in, therapy for the treatment of monogenic liver disorders with significant unmet need, today announced that it has expanded its management team by adding two experienced industry executives into key roles within the organization. Mark Semanick has been appointed Vice President and Head of Technical Operations, effective January 31, 2022, and Brad Dickerson will serve as the Vice President of Project Management & Patient Advocacy, effective February 14, 2022.

“Mark and Brad will be instrumental to iECURE as we prepare for clinical development of our internal and partnered pipeline, particularly with respect to building our manufacturing capabilities, preparing for clinical trials, and engaging with patient advocacy organizations,” said Joseph Truitt, Chief Executive Officer of iECURE. “With their track records of success in the rare disease space, we are pleased to welcome them to our growing team.”

Mr. Semanick joins iECURE with over two decades of leadership experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry in clinical and commercial cGMP manufacturing for cell and gene therapies, vaccines, enzyme replacement therapies and other drug products. Previously, he served as General Manager for Legend Biotech in their state-of-the-art CAR-T facility. Prior to that, he served as a Director of Manufacturing for WuXi AppTec Advanced Therapies Unit, and before that he held various positions of increased responsibility at Shire (now Takeda), Merck & Co., Schering-Plough (now Merck) and GlaxoSmithKline. He earned a B.S. in Chemistry with a minor in Marketing from Saint Francis University.

Mr. Dickerson has over 15 years of experience in developing early-stage biotech companies and collaborating with cross functional teams in the execution of clinical programs and leading commercial launches in the rare disease space. He previously served as Chief Commercial Officer for Palvella Therapeutics where he built and led the commercial organization in anticipation of pivotal data. Before that, he served as General Manager, Americas and Global Commercial Lead for Aurinia Pharmaceuticals. Previously, Mr. Dickerson held roles at RXCrossroads Specialty Solutions, NPS Pharmaceuticals (now Shire), ViroPharma (now Shire) and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Dickerson received his B.A. in Management from Gettysburg College and serves as a policy director for the Lupus and Allied Diseases Association, Inc.

About iECURE

iECURE is a gene editing company focused on developing therapies that utilize mutation-agnostic in vivo gene insertion, or knock-in, therapy for the treatment of monogenic liver disorders with significant unmet need. We believe our approach has the potential to replace and restore the function of a dysfunctional gene by knocking-in a healthy copy, regardless of mutation, to offer durable gene expression and long-term, potentially curative, therapeutic benefit. Our management team has extensive experience in executing global orphan drug and gene therapy clinical trials and successfully commercializing multiple products. We intend to leverage our team’s core strength in research and development strategy to identify what we believe to be the most suitable target and modality for our product candidates to address particular liver diseases. We are collaborating with the University of Pennsylvania’s Gene Therapy Program, or GTP, led by James M. Wilson, M.D., Ph.D., to utilize GTP’s world-class translational expertise and infrastructure, which has helped generate our initial pipeline of potential product candidates. For more information, visit www.iecure.com and follow on LinkedIn.

Investor Contact:
David Garrett
dgarrett@iecure.com

Media Contact:
Danielle Cantey
Canale Communications
danielle.cantey@canalecomm.com