Prevail Therapeutics Announces Executive Team Promotion and Appointments to Board of Directors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Prevail Therapeutics Inc. (Prevail), a gene therapy company developing AAV-based gene therapies for patients with devastating neurodegenerative diseases, today announced the promotion of Yong Dai, Ph.D., to Chief Technology Officer. In this role, Dr. Dai will lead the Company’s process development and analytical development to establish advanced manufacturing. In addition, the Company has appointed Tim Adams, Chief Financial Officer of ObsEva, to its Board of Directors as Audit Committee Chair, and Board member Francois Nader, M.D., will expand his role as Non-Executive Chairman.

“As Prevail transitions into a clinical-stage company, I am pleased to announce our key board and leadership appointments, which will help continue our momentum in advancing our pipeline of disease-modifying gene therapies for neurodegenerative diseases,” said Asa Abeliovich, M.D., Ph.D., Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Prevail. “I would like to congratulate Dr. Yong Dai on his promotion to Chief Technology Officer, which will be instrumental to expand our manufacturing capabilities. It is also a great honor to welcome Tim Adams to our Board of Directors, as well as to expand Dr. Francois Nader’s role to chairman of our Board.”

Yong Dai, Ph.D., Promoted to Chief Technology Officer

Newly appointed Chief Technology Officer Dr. Yong Dai joined Prevail in 2018 as Senior Vice President of Gene Therapy. He brings to the role more than 17 years of biotechnology industry experience focused on bioprocess development, chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC), good manufacturing practice, process validation, and regulatory submissions, including extensive work with gene therapy drug development. Prior to joining Prevail, Dr. Dai was the Senior Director of Process Development at uniQure, where he was responsible for process and analytical development and manufacturing sciences for early and late-stage gene therapy drug development programs. Prior to his time at uniQure, he served as the Head of Process Development Commercial Support at Shire Pharmaceuticals and held senior CMC roles at ImmunoGen. Dr. Dai completed his postdoctoral research at Harvard University, and holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He also holds an M.S. in biochemistry and molecular biology and a B.S. in biochemistry from the Peking University in China.

Board of Directors Appointments

Mr. Tim Adams, who also joins as Audit Committee Chair, is the Chief Financial Officer of ObsEva, a biotechnology company focused on women’s health with two of its three assets in late-stage development. He joined ObsEva in 2017, prior to its initial public offering, and has led three public financings for the company, raising more than $225 million. Prior to ObsEva, Mr. Adams served as the Chief Financial Officer of Demandware, which was acquired by Salesforce for more than $3 billion. Before Demandware, he was the Chief Financial Officer of athenahealth, following his early career as a Certified Public Accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Mr. Adams holds a bachelor’s degree from Murray State University and an MBA from Boston University.

Following his appointment as an Independent Director of Prevail’s Board of Directors in May 2018, Dr. Francois Nader has been appointed to Non-Executive Chairman. Dr. Nader was President, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of NPS Pharma from 2008 until 2015, when the company was acquired by Shire for $5.2 billion. During his tenure as its Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Nader transformed NPS Pharma into a leading global biotechnology company focused on delivering innovative therapies to patients with rare diseases. Before NPS Pharma, Dr. Nader was a Venture Partner at Care Capital. Previously, he served on the North America leadership team of Aventis and its predecessor companies, holding a number of executive positions including Senior Vice President of Integrated Healthcare Markets and North America Medical and Regulatory Affairs. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Acceleron Pharma and Talaris Therapeutics, and as a Board member of Alexion Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Nader earned his French Doctorate in medicine from St. Joseph University in Lebanon and his Physician Executive MBA from the University of Tennessee.

ABOUT PREVAIL THERAPEUTICS

Prevail Therapeutics is a gene therapy company leveraging breakthroughs in human genetics with the goal of developing and commercializing disease-modifying AAV-based gene therapies for patients with devastating neurodegenerative diseases. Prevail was founded by Dr. Abeliovich in 2017, through a collaborative effort with The Silverstein Foundation for Parkinson’s with GBA and OrbiMed, and is headquartered in New York, NY.

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