SpringWorks Therapeutics Appoints Bhavesh Ashar as Chief Commercial Officer
STAMFORD, Conn., March 22, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — SpringWorks Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: SWTX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing life-changing medicines for patients with severe rare diseases and cancer, announced today that Bhavesh Ashar has been appointed Chief Commercial Officer. Mr. Ashar has more than 20 years of global pharmaceutical and biotechnology experience, most recently having served as Senior Vice President, General Manager of U.S. Oncology at Bayer Healthcare. Mr. Ashar will build and lead commercial operations at SpringWorks as the company continues to advance its diversified targeted oncology portfolio, which includes two potentially registrational rare oncology programs.
“We are very happy to be welcoming Bhavesh to the SpringWorks team. His deep knowledge and experience in oncology product launches and proven record of building high-performing commercial teams will be instrumental as we prepare to serve patients with various forms of cancer,” said Saqib Islam, Chief Executive Officer of SpringWorks. “SpringWorks has made great progress in developing nirogacestat for patients with desmoid tumors and mirdametinib for patients with NF1-associated plexiform neurofibromas. We look forward to reporting data from our two registrational trials in these devastating tumors later this year, including topline data from our Phase 3 DeFi trial and additional data from our Phase 2b ReNeu trial.”
“What attracted me to SpringWorks was the breadth of opportunities across the company’s rare oncology programs and larger opportunities in genetically defined cancers,” said Mr. Ashar. “I look forward to joining this team of passionate and driven people who share a deep commitment to bringing life-changing medicines to patients and families suffering from severe rare diseases and cancer.”
As Senior Vice President, General Manager of U.S. Oncology at Bayer, Mr. Ashar served as Business Unit head for the U.S. Oncology franchise and was responsible for a broad portfolio in prostate, liver, colorectal, GIST, hematologic and tumor-agnostic biomarker driven cancers. Before joining Bayer in 2017, he held roles of increasing responsibility at Sanofi Genzyme over a 15-year tenure, including Vice President, General Manager of U.S. Oncology and Vice President, Global Head of Transplant. Prior to Sanofi Genzyme, Mr. Ashar was a consultant with McKinsey & Company where he served clients in the biopharmaceutical space. Mr. Ashar received an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BS in Mathematics from the Imperial College in London.
About SpringWorks Therapeutics
SpringWorks is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company applying a precision medicine approach to acquiring, developing and commercializing life-changing medicines for underserved patient populations suffering from devastating rare diseases and cancer. SpringWorks has a differentiated portfolio of small molecule targeted oncology product candidates and is advancing two potentially registrational clinical trials in rare tumor types, as well as several other programs addressing highly prevalent, genetically defined cancers. SpringWorks’ strategic approach and operational excellence in clinical development have enabled it to rapidly advance its two lead product candidates into late-stage clinical trials while simultaneously entering into multiple shared-value partnerships with industry leaders to expand its portfolio. For more information, visit www.springworkstx.com and follow @SpringWorksTx on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 relating to our business, operations, and financial conditions, including but not limited to current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding the future of our business, future plans and strategies, our development plans, our preclinical and clinical results, and other future conditions. Words such as, but not limited to, “look forward to,” “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “would,” “should” and “could,” and similar expressions or words, identify forward-looking statements. New risks and uncertainties may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible to predict all risks and uncertainties. Any forward-looking statements in this press release are based on management’s current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and important factors that may cause actual events or results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements contained in this press release, including, without limitation, risks relating to: (i) the success and timing of our product development activities, including the initiation and completion of SpringWorks’ clinical trials, (ii) the fact that interim data from a clinical study may not be predictive of the final results of such study or the results of other ongoing or future studies, (iii) the success and timing of our collaboration partners’ ongoing and planned clinical trials, (iv) our ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approval of any of our product candidates, (v) our plans to research, discover and develop additional product candidates, (vi) our ability to enter into collaborations for the development of new product candidates, (vii) our ability to establish manufacturing capabilities, and our and our collaboration partners’ abilities to manufacture our product candidates and scale production, (viii) our ability to meet any specific milestones set forth herein, and (ix) uncertainties and assumptions regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on SpringWorks’ business, operations, clinical trials, supply chain, strategy, goals and anticipated timelines. Except as required by applicable law, we do not plan to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein, whether as a result of any new information, future events, changed circumstances or otherwise. Although we believe the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. For further information regarding the risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause differences between SpringWorks’ expectations and actual results, you should review the “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of Part I of SpringWorks’ Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, as well as discussions of potential risks, uncertainties and other important factors in SpringWorks’ subsequent filings.
Contact
Kim Diamond
Vice President Communications and Investor Relations
Phone: 203-561-1646
Email: kdiamond@springworkstx.com
