Yasir Al-Wakeel Named CEO of Vesalius and Flagship Partner
Flagship Pioneering, a scientific innovation engine for platforms and merchandise, and Vesalius Therapeutics, an organization pioneering a revolutionary platform to redefine widespread illnesses for breakthroughs in therapies, targets and medical trials, right now introduced the appointment of Yasir Al-Wakeel, BM BCh (Doctor of Medicine and Surgery), as CEO-Partner of Flagship and CEO of Vesalius. He succeeds John Mendlein, Executive Partner at Flagship Pioneering, who has served as interim CEO and will proceed in his function as Executive Chairman.
Dr. Al-Wakeel joins Vesalius from a number of prior govt management roles guiding the expansion of early- and growth-stage biotechnology firms. Previously, he served in senior roles as a biotech fairness analyst and in company finance, the place he was concerned in additional than $30 billion in strategic and monetary transactions. A doctor scientist by coaching, he held each medical and tutorial medical posts within the UK. The mixture of medical drugs, operational, monetary, and enterprise improvement information offers him deep perception into how biotech firms scale to ship medicines to sufferers.
“Yasir brings a uncommon mix of medical experience, entrepreneurial expertise, and visionary management that will probably be invaluable as we search to harness the breadth of the Vesalius platform and rising pipeline,” stated Doug Cole, M.D., Co-Founder and Board Member of Vesalius and Managing Partner at Flagship Pioneering. “His confirmed means to combine cutting-edge science with strategic execution will propel Vesalius ahead and enrich the whole Flagship ecosystem.”
“We have made super latest progress scaling our Physio-Logic platform and defining an preliminary set of improvement packages in opposition to novel targets for widespread, advanced illnesses,” stated Mendlein. “With Yasir’s management, we are going to construct on this momentum towards a future the place illnesses are resolved at their molecular roots and therapies are matched exactly to the sufferers who want them most.”
Founded in 2019 by Flagship Pioneering, Vesalius is redefining widespread illnesses to establish beforehand unrecognized teams of sufferers who’re prone to reply favorably to therapies by focusing on novel factors of intervention. Using large-scale human genetics, genomics, induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) fashions, and synthetic intelligence, the corporate’s Physio-Logic platform genetically validates novel molecular targets to establish causal drivers of illnesses. This method has the potential to speed up drug discovery, improve the likelihood of success, and allow extra environment friendly medical trials.
In November 2024, Vesalius signed a multi-target strategic alliance with GSK to find and develop novel therapies for Parkinson’s illness and an undisclosed neurodegenerative indication. Vesalius’s inner improvement efforts embody novel packages in three therapeutic areas: pulmonary illnesses, neurodegeneration, and metabolic illnesses. The firm expects to appoint a number of improvement candidates inside the subsequent 12 months.
“The definitions of many widespread illnesses are centuries outdated and usually masks genetically distinct situations,” stated Dr. Al-Wakeel. “The Vesalius platform stands out in its means to recreate genome-wide affiliation research in a dish with hundreds of iPSC cell strains, uniquely making use of Mendelian randomization to uncover new illness biology. This opens the door to extra exact medicines and quicker, smarter medical improvement, and I’m excited to assist advance its most impactful functions.”
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