Experienced Leader Brings Extensive Clinical Development and Medical Affairs Expertise in Oncology
Terns Pharmaceuticals, Inc. , a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a portfolio of small-molecule product candidates to address serious diseases, including oncology, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and obesity, announced the appointment of Emil Kuriakose, M.D. as chief medical officer of Terns oncology, effective May 1, 2023. Dr. Kuriakose brings more than a decade of clinical development and medical affairs experience spanning early through late phase development in several oncology indications at Novartis and Calithera Biosciences, where he most recently was serving as chief medical officer. After Dr. Kuriakose commences his employment at Terns, Kerry Russell, M.D., will assume the role of chief medical officer of Terns metabolic with responsibility for Terns’ NASH and obesity programs.
“We are delighted to welcome Emil to the Terns leadership team. Emil’s deep relationships and expertise in the clinical development of new cancer treatments, combined with his extensive experience treating people with cancer, will be of great benefit as we advance our TERN-701 program in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) into clinical development in the United States and continue to build our oncology development team,” said Sen Sundaram, chief executive officer at Terns. “As chief medical officer of Terns metabolic, Kerry ‘s experience will continue to benefit our metabolic franchise in obesity and NASH where we expect to continue to build on our leading positions.”
“I am pleased to join Terns at this key juncture in the clinical development of TERN-701 to treat CML. There remains a tremendously high unmet need for therapeutic options for people living with CML, as current standard of care treatments are often switched due to safety concerns or intolerance. Allosteric TKIs like TERN-701, have shown significant improvements over active-site TKIs on the market today. TERN-701 represents an exciting option for people with CML. I look forward to leveraging my experience to advance TERN-701 for the treatment of CML and expand Terns’ oncology franchise,” commented Dr. Kuriakose.
Dr. Kuriakose joins Terns with more than a decade of biopharmaceutical industry experience, leading clinical development strategy and execution of therapeutics across multiple indications. In his most recent role as chief medical officer at Calithera Biosciences, Dr. Kuriakose led the transition of two mid-stage clinical programs with subsequent rapid initiation of two phase 2 studies. Previously, Dr. Kuriakose served as global clinical program lead at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR), where he was the global head of early development for MDM2 inhibitor (targeted therapy) and adenosine inhibitor programs in solid and hematologic malignancies. In this role, he was responsible for the development and execution of the clinical development for new oncology agents from the candidate selection process to clinical proof-of-concept stage and integrated development plan including design and execution of phase 1 and 2 clinical trials of novel compounds in the oncology and immuno-oncology portfolio. Before that, he served as medical director at Novartis Oncology, where he led a cross-functional team in the design and execution of trials exploring novel immune-oncology and targeted therapy combinations and oversaw late-stage clinical development, strategy, and medical affairs program for farydak (HDACi), sonidegib (Hh inhibitor), and afuresertib (AKTi) in the United States.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Kuriakose served as a hematology/oncology fellow at Weill Cornell Medical College and as a research fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He completed his residency at UT Southwestern Medical Center, where he also served as an attending physician. Dr. Kuriakose earned an M.D. from SUNY Stony Brook University School of Medicine and a B.S. in Neuroscience from New York University.
Source: Terns Pharmaceuticals
