AskBio Names Mansuo Shannon Chief Scientific Officer

Research Triangle Park, N.C., April 09, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

• Shannon joins AskBio from Prevail Therapeutics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Company
• Co-Founder and former Chief Scientific Officer R. Jude Samulski to remain member of AskBio Board of Directors

Asklepios BioPharmaceutical, Inc. (AskBio), a wholly owned and independently operated subsidiary of Bayer AG, announced today that on April 8, 2024, Mansuo Shannon, PhD, was named the company’s next Chief Scientific Officer (CSO). Shannon joins AskBio from Prevail Therapeutics, where she also served as CSO. Reporting to Gustavo Pesquin, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Shannon will be a member of AskBio’s Executive Leadership Team and head its R&D organization.

Shannon succeeds Co-Founder R. Jude Samulski, PhD, who served as CSO since the company was founded in 2001. Samulski will remain a member of the AskBio Board of Directors and in that capacity will continue to help guide the company’s scientific future during its next phase, after more than 20 years of building and growing AskBio.

“We are delighted to welcome Mansuo to the AskBio team. As a seasoned pharmaceutical and biotech executive who has worked across an impressive range of therapeutic modalities, her experience will be invaluable as our company continues to advance as a leader in gene therapy,” said Pesquin. “I am confident that Mansuo’s extensive background in neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases, in particular, will bring us closer to achieving our strategic vision of creating a new reality for people living with diseases that currently lack effective treatments.”

Shannon has over 16 years of industry experience covering work in small and large molecules, as well as gene therapy, including gene editing. While at Prevail Therapeutics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Company, she led the strategy for and executed work on an extensive product portfolio, managing a team of nearly 60 PhD scientists and research associates. In addition to her time as CSO at Prevail Therapeutics, Shannon spent close to 10 years working at Eli Lilly, where she led several programs that aimed to deliver novel disease-modifying therapies for Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson’s disease. Prior to her time at Eli Lilly, Shannon held key scientific roles at Chugai Pharmaceuticals/Roche Group and Merck. Shannon holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from Princeton University, and she completed her post-doctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Susumu Tonegawa, PhD.  

As part of her role as CSO at AskBio, Shannon will develop and implement the company’s future R&D strategy. She will lead all aspects of the discovery and development of AskBio’s gene therapy platform and will oversee the global teams charged with advancing that platform. As an integral member of AskBio’s Executive Leadership Team, Shannon will provide scientific leadership to the CEO, the Board of Directors, and the company as a whole, in addition to being a key partner of the broader Bayer R&D leadership team and Bayer’s scientific community.

“I am excited to take on the challenge of serving as AskBio’s next CSO,” said Shannon. “I look forward to working with the company’s leadership team and pioneering scientists, as well as colleagues across functions and at Bayer, to advance AskBio’s R&D organization and deliver transformative gene therapies that have the potential to change the course of some of the world’s most devastating diseases.”

About AskBio

Asklepios BioPharmaceutical, Inc. (AskBio), a wholly owned and independently operated subsidiary of Bayer AG, is a fully integrated gene therapy company dedicated to developing life-saving medicines and changing lives. The company maintains a portfolio of clinical programs across a range of neuromuscular, central nervous system, cardiovascular, and metabolic disease indications with a clinical-stage pipeline that includes therapeutics for congestive heart failure, Huntington’s disease, limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, multiple system atrophy, Parkinson’s disease, and Pompe disease. AskBio’s gene therapy platform includes Pro10™, an industry-leading proprietary cell line manufacturing process, and an extensive capsid and promoter library. With global headquarters in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and European headquarters in Edinburgh, Scotland, the company has generated hundreds of proprietary capsids and promoters, several of which have entered pre-clinical and clinical testing. An early innovator in the gene therapy field, with over 900 employees in five countries, the company holds more than 800 patents and patent applications in areas such as AAV production and chimeric capsids. Learn more at www.askbio.com or follow us on LinkedIn. 

About Bayer

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition. In line with its mission, “Health for all, Hunger for none,” the company’s products and services are designed to help people and the planet thrive by supporting efforts to master the major challenges presented by a growing and aging global population. Bayer is committed to driving sustainable development and generating a positive impact with its businesses. At the same time, the Group aims to increase its earning power and create value through innovation and growth. The Bayer brand stands for trust, reliability and quality throughout the world. In fiscal 2023, the Group employed around 100,000 people and had sales of 47.6 billion euros. R&D expenses before special items amounted to 5.8 billion euros. For more information, go to www.bayer.com.

AskBio Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains “forward-looking statements.” Any statements contained in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Words such as “believes,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “expects,” “will,” “intends,” “potential,” “possible,” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding AskBio’s clinical trials. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond AskBio’s control. Known risks include, among others: AskBio may not be able to execute on its business plans and goals, including meeting its expected or planned clinical and regulatory milestones and timelines, its reliance on third-parties, clinical development plans, manufacturing processes and plans, and bringing its product candidates to market, due to a variety of reasons, including possible limitations of company financial and other resources, manufacturing limitations that may not be anticipated or resolved in a timely manner, potential disagreements or other issues with our third-party collaborators and partners, and regulatory, court or agency feedback or decisions, such as feedback and decisions from the United States Food and Drug Administration or the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Any of the foregoing risks could materially and adversely affect AskBio’s business and results of operations. You should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. AskBio does not undertake any obligation to publicly update its forward-looking statements based on events or circumstances after the date hereof. 

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• Mansuo Shannon, PhD

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