- Ben Stephens brings seasoned operational and finance capabilities to Sitryx as Chief Operating Officer
- Gordon Dingwall appointed Head of Clinical Operations, expanding Company’s clinical development capabilities ahead of anticipated entry into the clinic in 2025
Oxford, UK – 4 March 2024 – Sitryx Therapeutics (“the Company”), a biopharmaceutical company focused on regulating cell metabolism to develop disease-modifying therapeutics for chronic autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, today announces the strengthening of its team with the appointment of Ben Stephens as Chief Operating Officer and Gordon Dingwall as Head of Clinical Operations.
Ben brings 25 years of experience of board level, operational and finance roles within the pharmaceutical and industrial sectors. Over the past decade, Ben has worked across pharmaceutical, drug development and licensing fields, with university spin-outs from the UK’s leading institutions, healthcare start-ups and clinical stage biotechnology companies. These include as Finance Director at Rinri Therapeutics, a company developing first-in-class regenerative cell therapies for hearing loss, and Finance Director at nanovesicle platform company, ViaNautis Bio. At Sitryx, Ben joins the Company’s senior leadership team and will oversee the Company’s day-to-day operations and finance. He will also ensure that Sitryx has the operational infrastructure in place to further advance its broad pipeline of novel treatments for chronic autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Ben holds a BSc in Management Sciences from the University of Warwick and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
Gordon joins Sitryx with over 25 years of experience in building clinical operations and leading project delivery in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry across various phases of development. His appointment further supports the Company’s transition towards becoming a clinical-stage company, strengthening Sitryx’s in-house development capabilities alongside Lisa Pierre, Ph.D., Vice President, Clinical Development and Dr Ravi Rao, Chief Medical Officer.
Before becoming Head of Clinical Operations at Sitryx, Gordon was Vice President of Development Operations at biotech company Mission Therapeutics, where he oversaw the design and execution of the company’s clinical development assets. Prior to this, he was Director of Clinical Operations at Freeline Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing gene therapies for rare diseases. This followed a variety of clinical development leadership roles with a number of companies including Roche, Vectura and AstraZeneca. Leading Sitryx’s clinical operations, Gordon will work with the development team as it progresses its assets beyond pre-clinical research and into clinical-stage drug development. Gordon holds a BSc in pharmacology from Sunderland Polytechnic, a PgDip in immunology from Kings College London and a BOst in osteopathy from Middlesex University, London.
Dr Ravi Rao, Chief Medical Officer of Sitryx, commented: “Sitryx has made excellent progress with its pipeline of potential first- and best-in-class, disease-modifying therapeutics. The addition of Ben and Gordon will see us build further on this and ensure we have the operational and clinical rigor in place to drive our pipeline in 2024 and beyond, as we enter a new phase, pursuing the clinical development of multiple, novel drug candidates. I look forward to working with my new colleagues, whose combined expertise will be invaluable as we advance our proprietary programs towards the clinic.”
Ben Stephens, Chief Operating Officer of Sitryx, said: “I am excited to be joining Sitryx at this critical stage of its development. I look forward to working closely with the leadership team and contributing towards the development of immunometabolism-targeting therapies with the potential to achieve lasting disease remission, addressing a significant unmet need for patients. With its world-class science, promising pipeline and experienced leadership, Sitryx has the potential to become a global market leader in the field.”
Gordon Dingwall, Head of Clinical Operations at Sitryx, also commented: “I have followed the progress at Sitryx with great interest, impressed by both its world-class science and experienced management team. I welcome the opportunity to apply my clinical development expertise, working with my new colleagues to expand our in-house development capabilities, to ensure the seamless transition of Sitryx’s promising assets into the clinic.”
For more information about Sitryx please contact:
ICR Consilium
Mary-Jane Elliott, David Daley, Sue Stuart
+44 (0)20 3709 5700
About Sitryx
Sitryx is a biopharmaceutical company focused on regulating cell metabolism to develop disease-modifying therapeutics for chronic autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Sitryx's proprietary science is led by a highly experienced management team and supported by world class academic founders. Sitryx was founded by world-leading researchers in the field of immunology and metabolism, including Houman Ashrafian, Luke O'Neill, Jonathan Powell, Jeff Rathmell, Michael Rosenblum and Paul Peter Tak. Together they have published more than 1,000 papers in the field, making multiple key breakthroughs in our understanding of how the energetic status of immune cells is critical in regulating disease activity.
Sitryx was founded in 2018 with seed funding from SV Health Investors and has raised in excess of $75 million to date from an international syndicate of specialist investors including SV Health Investors, Sofinnova Partners, Oxford Science Enterprises, Longwood Fund, Lilly and GSK. In 2020, Sitryx formed an exclusive global licensing and research collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company. The Company has a pipeline of projects at multiple stages of drug discovery. Sitryx is headquartered in Oxford, UK. For more information, please visit www.sitryx.com.