CatalYm Announces New Chief Financial Officer Peter Garcia

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CatalYm, jointly based in Munich and San Francisco, is naming Peter Garcia its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

New Chief Financial Officer Bona Fides

Garcia has more than three decades of experience in financial leadership in biotech and oncology. He has been CFO at multiple life science companies—also, namely, PDL BioPharma, ALX Oncology, and most recently, Bluejay Therapeutics. He began his career in biopharma at Amgen.

CatalYm’s current work involves the development of visugromab, a first in class anti-GDF-15 antibody, for treatment of solid tumors and cachexia. A first in human Phase I/IIa study has been performed in relapsed and checkpoint refractory metastatic solid tumor patients. In combination with anti-PD-1 treatment, visugromab showed deep, durable anti-tumor efficacy, along with durable objective responses.

In addition, this study showed visugromab’s ability to significantly lessen cachexia’s effects in the patients treated. CatalYm is now moving the treatment into Phase IIb studies in metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma.

CatalYm Hopeful for Future

“The growing body of clinical data of visugromab continues to highlight the therapeutic potential of targeting GDF-15,” Garcia said. “CatalYm’s broad late stage clinical development with four ongoing trials provides significant opportunity to improve patient outcomes.”

CatalYm CEO Scott Clarke touted the new executive team addition.

“Pete has consistently helped innovative biotech companies navigate periods of growth and major value inflection points,” Clarke said. “His addition to our leadership team positions CatalYm well to execute on our robust clinical development and operational goals.”