What Happened?
Cambridge, MA-based Cary Pfeffer as Chief Executive Officer
About the Company
Our mission is clear: To build a breakthrough oncology company creating neoantigen-based therapeutics that significantly improve the lives of patients. Neon Therapeutics is a leader in the field of neoantigen-targeted therapies, dedicated to transforming the treatment of cancer by directing the immune system towards neoantigens. Genetic mutations, which are a hallmark of cancer, can result in specific immune targets called neoantigens. The presence of neoantigens in cancer cells and their absence in normal cells makes them compelling, untapped targets for cancer therapy. By directing the immune system towards these targets, we believe our neoantigen-targeted therapies will offer a new level of patient and tumor specificity in the field of cancer immunotherapy that will drive a strong risk-benefit profile to dramatically improve patient outcomes. We pioneered a proprietary neoantigen platform to develop neoantigen-targeted therapies. Our platform seeks to identify and harness the most therapeutically relevant neoantigens present within each patient`s tumor, and comprises three key elements that form an iterative feedback loop: our RECONTMBioinformatics Engine; our deep capabilities in peptide chemistry and manufacturing; and our combined NEON-STIMTM T cell biology and immune-monitoring expertise. Our company builds on more than a decade of pioneering work by our world-class scientific founders across multiple leading global institutions including the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, MD Anderson Cancer Center, the Netherlands Cancer Institute and Washington University in St. Louis. Our founders were central to the development of both the fields of immuno-oncology and neoantigens and have published a number of seminal papers outlining the importance of neoantigens as critical immune targets for treating cancer.
About the Person
Neon Therapeutics` interim chief executive officer, Cary Pfeffer joined Third Rock Ventures at its inception in 2007 and has more than 20 years of business development and transaction experience, along with a broad array of biotech product development experience. Cary leads Third Rock`s partner development efforts, including building and maintaining strong relationships to work with large biotech and pharmaceutical companies. He has played an instrumental role in a number of innovative alliances and collaborative company building efforts across Third Rock`s portfolio, including an industry-leading global strategic collaboration between Agios and Celgene in the field of cancer metabolism. Cary supports and advises on business development efforts across Third Rock`s portfolio and has also assumed active leadership roles in its portfolio companies, functioning as chief executive officer and chief business officer through the first 12-18 months after launch. Cary was the interim chief business officer of Eleven Biotherapeutics, interim CEO of Jounce Therapeutics and currently serves as a board member of Ablexis, Edimer, Eleven Biotherapeutics, Jounce Therapeutics and Taris Biomedical. Before joining Third Rock, Cary founded The Pfeffer Group, a boutique consulting firm that provided business development and strategy advisory services, completing multiple transactions for leading biotechnology and life sciences companies. Prior to that, Cary spent more than a decade at Biogen, where he held a variety of senior and executive level U.S. and global management roles focused on business and market development, product development and commercial operations. Earlier in his career, Cary spent several years in corporate finance in the Health Care Investment Banking Group of Lehman Brothers. Cary earned his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and holds a B.A. in biochemistry from Columbia University.
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