Exhibit 99.1
![LOGO](https://capedge.com/proxy/8-K/0001193125-19-184386/g774554g0627230921692.jpg)
Homology Medicines Announces Leadership Updates
- Sam Rasty, Ph.D., Departs as Chief Operating Officer to Lead an Emerging Biotech -
BEDFORD, Mass., June 27, 2019 – Homology Medicines, Inc. (Nasdaq: FIXX), a genetic medicines company, announced today changes to its leadership team, which positions the Company for continued growth as a clinical-stage company. Sam Rasty, Ph.D., is stepping down as Chief Operating Officer to assume the role of President and Chief Executive Officer of Platelet BioGenesis, an early stage biotechnology company. In conjunction with Dr. Rasty’s departure, Brad Smith, Chief Financial Officer, who also manages Homology’s information technology, facilities and intellectual property portfolio, will assume responsibility for corporate development. Michael Blum, Vice President of Commercial Strategy, will lead commercial efforts and report directly to the CEO, as Homology advances lead gene therapy candidateHMI-102 through Phase 1/2 studies for adults with phenylketonuria (PKU), a rare, inborn error of metabolism caused by a mutation in the PAH gene.
“As one of the first employees of Homology, Sam was instrumental in directing the operational aspects of a startup, establishing our collaboration with Novartis and helping with our transition to a public company and our recent advancement to a clinical-stage organization,” said Arthur Tzianabos, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Homology Medicines. “We are excited that Sam will have the opportunity to help build another biotech and we wish him continued success in this next phase of his career.”
Dr. Tzianabos continued, “Looking ahead, Homology’s experienced team is laser focused on advancing our Phase 1/2 pheNIX study for PKU and reporting initial clinical data by the end of 2019. Behind our lead program is an emerging pipeline that we believe will create additional opportunities to help patients with rare diseases and generate value from our dual gene therapy and gene editing platform.”
In other leadership highlights, Melissa Gelormini, Vice President of Human Resources and management team member, has successfully spearheaded the Company’s growth to more than 160 people over the past three years, while retaining key talent committed to Homology’s mission of developing potential cures for rare diseases. This growth has enabled the Company to build a proprietary process development and commercial manufacturing platform to supportHMI-102 for the pheNIX trial all the way through to commercial scale, as well as to advance its gene therapy and gene editing pipeline. With the recent initiation of the pheNIX study, Steve Glyman, M.D., Vice President of Clinical Development, and his team have been working with Boston Children’s Hospital and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to enroll patients with the goal of bringing additional trial sites on board this year.