Empress Therapeutics Appoints Virginia Finnerty-Brooks Chief Business Officer

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Empress Therapeutics, a company accelerating small molecule drug generation through novel insights linking genes to chemistry, today announced that Virginia Finnerty-Brooks has been appointed Chief Business Officer (CBO). With more than 25 years of corporate development and operational experience, Ms. Finnerty-Brooks will work closely with the Empress leadership team and board to drive corporate development, including industry partnerships, academic research collaborations, and operational excellence.

“Virginia has repeatedly created and delivered value-generating business opportunities at companies big and small in multiple categories over the course of her career,” said Jason Park, Ph.D., Co-Founder and CEO of Empress. “We are delighted to have her join the team at this opportune time as our Chemilogics platform continues to produce novel small molecule drug leads in a wide variety of potential indications, and we progress the most promising programs toward the clinic.”

“The Empress platform has the potential to deliver meaningful novel small molecule drugs across a range of therapeutic indications with an initial focus in immune and inflammatory diseases and additional efforts underway in oncology, metabolic disorders and other opportunities,” said Ms. Finnerty-Brooks. “The team have made significant progress moving a number of promising molecules forward in the immune and inflammatory category and, given the power of the platform and the breadth of potential applications, Empress represents an exciting opportunity to build and grow the business via internally driven approaches and a range of partnerships. I am excited to join the team, contribute to the positive momentum and help realize the potential of the technology to deliver valuable therapeutics with more speed, precision, and predictability than ever before.”

Ms. Finnerty-Brooks has led, architected, and contributed to numerous development and M&A deals across therapeutic areas within the biotech, medical device, and related technologies fields, including most notably the 2020 sale of Dermira to Eli Lilly and the 2021 sale of Qbrexza® to Journey Medical. Prior roles include corporate development leadership positions at Adanate, DSM Biomedical, Precigen, and FibroGen.

Ms. Finnerty-Brooks is active in industry associations, including the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), Women in Bio (WIB), and the California Life Sciences Association (CLSA). She holds a master’s in business administration from Saint Joseph’s University and a bachelor’s degree from Temple University.

About Chemilogics™

Empress’s proprietary Chemilogics product platform creates drugs by understanding how the genetic code programs cells in the human body to produce chemical compounds called metabolites, a rich source of potential small molecule medicines. The company is initially focused on metabolites produced by commensal bacteria and uses a proprietary suite of computational and genetic technologies to create small molecule chemical compounds by harnessing the genetic foundation of biologics.

About Empress Therapeutics

Founded by Flagship Pioneering in 2020, Empress Therapeutics generates good medicines, fast, by starting with chemistry inside the human body. The Empress Chemilogics™ platform uses novel insights that connect the lines of code in DNA with drug-like chemistry made in the human body to create first- or best-in-class oral medicines for a broad range of diseases quickly, predictably, and cost-effectively. For more information, visit www.empresstx.com and follow at @empress_tx.

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