MRUS - Merus Appoints Fabian Zohren M.D. Ph.D. as Chief Medical Officer | Benzinga
UTRECHT, The Netherlands and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 01, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Merus N.V. (NASDAQ:MRUS) (Merus, the Company, we, or our), a clinical-stage oncology company developing innovative, full-length multispecific antibodies (Biclonics® and Triclonics®), today announced the appointment of Fabian Zohren M.D., PhD as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) effective July 1, 2024. Andrew Joe, M.D. will step down from the CMO role and continue to serve as a Consultant for the next three months. In addition, effective July 1, Hui Liu, Ph.D., EVP, Chief Business Officer & Head of Merus U.S. is leaving Merus. The Company has initiated a search to find a replacement to head the business development function.
"I am pleased to welcome Fabian Zohren to Merus as our new CMO and confident that his proven clinical development skills and late stage registrational trial experience will prove invaluable as we plan to initiate two phase 3 trials in 2024 for petosemtamab, and continue to build out a development strategy that maximizes the opportunity this important clinical candidate may have for patients," said Bill Lundberg, M.D., President, Chief Executive Officer of Merus. "I am grateful for Andrew's leadership particularly for guiding our most advanced clinical candidate Zeno through clinical development which has resulted in two Breakthrough Therapy Designations and the acceptance of our first Biologics License Application submission under priority review for NRG1+ non-small cell lung and NRG1+ pancreatic cancer–a key milestone for the evolution of our company. Andrew has also been instrumental in leading the development of petosemtamab, through the phase 1/2 trials, obtaining Breakthrough Therapy Designation, and planning of the phase 3 trials, and I'm thankful that he has agreed to stay on as an adviser during this important stage at Merus."
Dr. Fabian Zohren is a proven late-stage clinical development expert, joining Merus from ImmunoGen where he was SVP and Chief Medical Officer from November 2023 through its acquisition by AbbVie in May 2024. Prior to ImmunoGen, Dr. Zohren worked at Pfizer from 2017 until 2023 where he most recently served as Global Clinical Development Leader for prostate cancer and DNA repair, a role which included Xtandi® (enzalutamide) and Talzenna® (talazoparib) with oversight of two clinical programs encompassing >8000 treated patients and 8 global phase 3 registrational studies ...