Electra Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical stage biotechnology company, appointed Kathy Dong, President and Chief Executive Officer. Dong succeeds Adam Rosenthal, who was co-founder and CEO of Electra. Rosenthal will continue to serve as a member of Electra’s board of directors and as CEO of Star Therapeutics, the company that spun out Electra.

Dong has more than 15 years of experience in corporate development, business operations, portfolio management, and product commercialization. Previously, she was CEO of Star Therapeutics since 2019, where she held strategic and operational responsibilities across the Star portfolio, including building Electra Therapeutics and Vega Therapeutics from discovery stage into the clinic. Prior to joining Star Therapeutics, she served as vice president of commercial development at True North Therapeutics. Following True North’s acquisition by Bioverativ/Sanofi, she was Head of New Product Planning for the complement franchise at Sanofi. Dong spent nine years of her career at Gilead Sciences, where she led the launch and market development of numerous products in Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C.

“We are excited to have Kathy take on the role of CEO of Electra. I have had the privilege of working with Kathy across multiple companies and seen her track record of success in advancing novel therapies for patients and creating value for emerging biotechs,” said Nancy Stagliano, executive chair of Electra’s board of directors. “With Kathy’s outstanding leadership, Electra will continue to advance its lead candidate, ELA026, as well as pursue a broad range of opportunities to address unmet needs in immune-mediated diseases and cancer.”

“I’m honored to lead Electra and collaborate with an incredibly talented team to realize the exciting potential of pioneering novel biology and, in the near-term, advancing ELA026 as a first-in-class antibody for patients with sHLH, a severe inflammatory disease with high unmet need and no approved treatment,” said Dong. “This is a time of strong momentum for the company, particularly as the first clinical data for ELA026 was just presented at the American Society of Hematology annual meeting, showing a very encouraging response rate in difficult-to-treat subsets of patients with sHLH. We also see broad opportunities ahead as we apply our deep expertise to develop antibodies against novel targets that address immune dysregulation in immunological diseases and cancer.”