Be Biopharma Appoints John Mayfield, Ph.D., as Chief Business Officer

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Be Biopharma (“Be Bio”) today announced the appointment of John Mayfield, Ph.D., to the newly created position of Chief Business Officer. Dr. Mayfield will be responsible for establishing and leading business development, leveraging his expertise in licensing, transactions and establishing strategic collaborations within the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Dr. Mayfield reports to Joanne Smith-Farrell, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer, and is a member of Be Bio’s executive leadership team.

“I am very excited to welcome John to Be Bio. His leadership and experience in business development and corporate strategy will play a vital role in building partnerships to expand our pipeline of transformative B cell medicines for patients,” said Joanne Smith-Farrell, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer, Be Bio. “Our platform has exceptionally broad utility across therapeutic areas, and business development is an active and important component of our growth strategy. John’s unique background in business and science will contribute to the strategic development and evolution of our company.”

“I am thrilled to join Be Bio and its experienced and passionate team who are building the leading B cell company focused on transforming patients’ lives with a new class of medicines spanning multiple therapeutic areas,” said Dr. Mayfield. “Be Bio has made significant progress in advancing its platform, and I look forward to driving our next phase of development towards the clinic and expanding the reach of our novel B cell programs.”

Dr. Mayfield joins Be Bio from EQRx where he was Vice President, Corporate and Business Development. At EQRx, he led a team that executed significant deal-flow spanning co-development and co-commercialization partnerships to licensing and collaboration agreements for preclinical, clinical and commercial-stage medicines. Prior to EQRx, he held business development roles of increasing responsibility at Voyager Therapeutics and Foundation Medicine. Early in his career, at Illumina, Dr. Mayfield focused on product development utilizing genomic data. He holds a Ph.D. in cellular and molecular biology from the University of Florida, and a Bachelor of Science in biology from Southeast Missouri State University. Dr. Mayfield conducted postdoctoral research at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Duke University. He currently serves as an advisory board member of the University of Florida Innovate | Accelerate, a biotechnology business incubator.

About B Cells – A New Class of Cellular Medicines

Imagine what could “Be?” In nature, a single B cell engrafts in the bone marrow and can produce thousands of proteins per second at constant levels over decades. B cells are nature’s exquisite medicine factories, manufacturing proteins to fight disease and maintain health. Unleashing the power of B cells is driving a new class of cellular medicines – Engineered B Cell Medicines (BeCM). BeCMs have the potential to be durable, allogeneic, redosable and administered without toxic conditioning. The promise of BeCMs could transform therapeutic biologics with broad application — across protein classes, patient populations and therapeutic areas.

About Be Biopharma

Be Biopharma (“Be Bio”) is pioneering Engineered B Cell Medicines (BeCM) to dramatically improve patients’ lives who are living with cancer, rare diseases and other serious conditions. With eyes locked on the patient, our team of purpose-driven scientists, technologists, manufacturing experts and business builders collaborate to create a bold new class of cell therapies. Be Bio was founded in October 2020 by Longwood Fund and B cell engineering pioneers David Rawlings, M.D., and Richard James, Ph.D., from Seattle Children’s Research Institute. Be Bio is backed by ARCH Venture Partners, Atlas Venture, RA Capital Management, Alta Partners, Longwood Fund, Bristol Myers Squibb and Takeda Ventures. Since our founding, Be Bio’s investors have committed over $180 million to enable the Company to re-imagine medicine based on the power of B cell therapy. For more information, please visit us at Be.Bio and our LinkedIn page.

Stephanie Fagan
sfagan@be.bio