Peptone, a company involved in translational biophysics and the design of novel therapeutics against intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), appointed key leaders to its executive management team and board of directors.

Patrik Foerch has been appointed chief scientific officer; David Lowe, joins as senior vice president of protein therapeutics; and Benjamin Owens, previously chief strategy officer, has transitioned to the role of chief business officer and will join Peptone’s board of directors as executive director. Andrew Allen, co-founder, President, and CEO of Gritstone bio has been appointed board chair.

Foerch is a scientific leader with more than two decades of experience in large and small molecule drug discovery with a specialization in inflammation and neuroscience. He previously served as senior vice president of pre-clinical drug discovery at Sitryx Therapeutics and as head of immuno-bone discovery at UCB Pharma.

Lowe has 25 years of experience in biologics discovery and early drug development, including leading teams at AstraZeneca focused on the discovery and preclinical development of biologics, including antibodies, recombinant proteins, mRNA, and viral therapies.

Owens has served as Peptone’s chief strategy officer since 2021 and is an experienced biopharmaceutical corporate development executive, having previously served as vice president & head of global business development at EUSA Pharma from foundation through the €750M exit to Recordati S.p.A in 2021.

Allen has served as co-founder, President, and CEO of Gritstone bio since 2015. He was also co-founder of Clovis Oncology where he served as chief medical officer until 2015, overseeing the development of rucaparib, an approved PARP inhibitor.

“The expansion of Peptone’s executive team with deep drug discovery and development expertise comes at an important moment in time for the company and will enable us to capitalize on our proprietary computational and experimental approaches, accelerating the company’s internal drug discovery programs and external partnerships,” said Kamil Tamiola, CEO of Peptone. “We are thrilled to welcome Patrik and David to the organization and grateful for Benjamin and Andrew’s leadership and contributions in this important new phase of the company’s development and growth.”