Alchemab Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of naturally-occurring protective antibodies in neurodegeneration and oncology, today announced the appointment of Douglas A. Treco, PhD as Chief Executive Officer. Dr Treco will join the Company’s Board of Directors and will be based in Boston, Massachusetts.
“We’re excited that Doug will bring his extensive experience to our leadership team as we seek to grow our highly differentiated platform,” said Houman Ashrafian, BM BCh, DPhil, Managing Partner at SV Health Investors and Chairman of Alchemab’s Board of Directors. “Our goal is to develop a world-class management team with footprints on both sides of the Atlantic and broaden the Company’s exposure to US investigators, investors, and potential employees.”
Most recently, Dr Treco was Co-Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Ra Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on peptide and small molecule inhibitors of the complement pathway. The company was acquired in April 2020 by UCB S.A. for $2.5 billion.
“Alchemab’s approach of identifying protective antibodies truly changes the game in terms of creating the next major antibody therapeutics company,” said Dr Treco. “We believe this platform gives us a unique ability to develop a robust pipeline of truly innovative neurodegenerative and oncology medicines.”
“Doug has a proven track record of building successful life science companies and we’re pleased to team up with him again,” said Andrew Levin, MD, PhD, Managing Director at RA Capital. “In addition, Alchemab has tremendous scientific leadership, with Jane Osbourn, PhD FMedSci, OBE, spearheading this novel approach. Together, we’re confident that they will continue to grow Alchemab into a major source of novel drugs to benefit patients.”
“We are tremendously grateful to Alchemab’s founding CEO, Alex Leech, who led the Company since its inception and oversaw the Series A financing,” noted SV’s Professor Ashrafian. Mr Leech will return to company creation as a Venture Partner at SV Health Investors.
Previously, Dr Treco co-founded Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc. (TKT), which was acquired in 2005 by Shire plc. In his position as Senior Vice President of Research and Development, he established and directed TKT’s gene activation and protein production efforts, which led to the approval of Dynepo™, Replagal®, Elaprase®, and Vpriv®.
Dr Treco is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Inozyme Pharma and is a member of the Board of Directors of CRISPR Therapeutics AG. He is also a scientific advisor to Lightstone Ventures.
From January 2008 to May 2014, Dr Treco served as an entrepreneur-in-residence with Morgenthaler Ventures and was a visiting scientist in the Department of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital and a lecturer in genetics at Harvard Medical School from 2004 to 2007.
He received a BA in Biology from the University of Delaware, a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and performed post-doctoral research at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Massachusetts General Hospital.
In April 2021, Alchemab raised $82 million in a Series A financing led by RA Capital and joined by Lightstone Ventures, DHVC, and DCVC Bio. In 2019, Alchemab raised a seed round led by SV Health Investors and the Dementia Discovery Fund. The Company collaborates closely with Illumina, having been part of the first cohort of companies joining the Illumina Accelerator in Cambridge, UK, and recently announced a partnership with AstraZeneca where Alchemab will use its platform to aid in the development of new treatments for prostate cancer.