SmartZyme Adds Two Drug Development Veterans to Broaden and Strengthen Leadership Team

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)– SmartZyme BioPharma, Inc. today announces the broadening and
strengthening of its leadership team with the appointments of Mark
Leavitt, Ph.D. to vice president of research and development and chief
technology officer, and Christopher R. Shepard, Ph.D. to senior vice
president of business and portfolio development.

Shilo Ben Zeev, SmartZyme’s co-founder and chief executive officer,
said, « Dr. Leavitt is one of the best minds in the business of drug
development and has world-class experience in building and leading
talented R&D organizations. Dr. Shepard brings a wealth of drug
development experience to the SmartZyme team and a passion to help
patients. His leadership will be instrumental in expanding and advancing
our pipeline as SmartZyme moves new and existing compounds forward along
the commercialization pathway. These two hires will serve as critical
underpinnings for SmartZyme’s growth across many vital functions and
drug programs. I’m very happy we were able to bring such talented and
experienced professionals into the company and gratified that they have
agreed to join the company.”

Mark Leavitt, Ph.D.

Dr. Leavitt has more than 20 years of expertise leading drug discovery
and development teams that have driven multiple biotherapeutic programs
from early stage through to clinical studies, with particular focus on
enzyme replacement therapies for the treatment of metabolic disorders.

Most recently, from 2001 through 2017, Dr. Leavitt held positions of
increasing responsibility, including executive director of research and
vice president of expression and bioanalytics at Synageva BioPharma and
at Alexion Pharmaceuticals following Alexion’s acquisition of Synageva.
While at Synageva, he managed the development of several biotherapeutic
drugs, including enzyme therapy Kanuma®.

Previous to Alexion, Dr. Leavitt worked in the areas of anti-viral
therapeutics and gene therapy at Pfizer and University of California at
San Diego. He holds Ph.D. and B.S. degrees from the University of
Arizona.

“I am delighted to be joining Smartzyme BioPharma and am looking forward
to helping to advance Smartzyme’s technologies rapidly into the clinical
setting. I believe the company’s advanced protein engineering
technologies will serve an important role in addressing unmet or
underserved medical needs and am looking forward to working with the
team to move these technologies forward toward the development of new,
innovative applications,” said Dr. Leavitt.

Christopher Shepard, Ph.D.

Dr. Shepard began his career in 2002 at Genentech working on the team
that developed Herceptin® (trastuzumab). Since that time, he has worked
with research and development teams at Astellas, Celgene, and Merck in
the areas of oncology and metabolism. Most notably, he contributed to
the strategy of Merck’s 30,000 subject REVEAL study testing the
cholesteryl ester transfer protein-(CETP)inhibitor anacetrapib, which
significantly reduced major coronary events in a recently-reported Phase
3 study.

Prior to joining SmartZyme, Dr. Shepard was founder and head of
development at Structured BioEquity (SBE), where he directed several
ongoing drug programs from concept to protocol. He is an organizer for
the upcoming Keystone Symposium for Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis
(NASH). Dr. Shepard holds a Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Pathology
from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a B.Sc. from
Wake Forest University. Additionally, Dr. Shepard holds an M.B.A. from
Carnegie Mellon University.

« I’m incredibly excited to join SmartZyme at such an important time for
the company, » said Dr. Shepard. “SmartZyme’s technology platform will
allow us to tackle the most formidable modern challenges in therapeutic
protein biochemistry as well as different challenging modalities such as
mRNA therapy. Patients are waiting for these therapies, and we will
deliver.”

About SmartZyme

SmartZyme BioPharma, Inc. is a New York-based OrbiMed portfolio company
that specializes in researching and developing optimized protein,
enzyme, and mRNA therapeutics through directed evolution. SmartZyme’s
current portfolio includes a next-generation, ultra-accurate,
glucose-sensing enzyme that undergoes direct-electron transfer which has
been integrated into a sensor for use in continuous glucose monitors
(CGM); and a next-generation recombinant Factor VIIa protein for acute
bleeding episodes. Smartzyme is currently evaluating other potential
innovative drug programs for global development.

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