On January 6, 2021 Erasca, a company whose mission is to erase cancer, reported that Wei Lin, M.D., has joined as chief medical officer (Press release, Erasca, JAN 6, 2021, View Source [SID1234573622]). David Chacko, M.D., previously Erasca’s chief business officer, has been appointed as chief financial officer, assuming the role from Gary Yeung, who has departed from the company to pursue other opportunities.
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"Attracting top talent like Wei to Erasca positions the company to aggressively pursue clinical development of our burgeoning pipeline so we can bring new therapeutics that aim to erase cancer for the many patients who await better treatment options," said Jonathan E. Lim, M.D., Erasca’s chairman, CEO and co-founder. "In the past year, we have significantly advanced our pipeline, including having multiple programs that are now in the clinic. We are grateful that Wei has joined us at this critical juncture to help accelerate our clinical development activities for the potential benefit of patients. He is an exceptional clinician and strategic thinker with deep expertise in oncology drug development."
Dr. Lim further added, "On behalf of the entire company, I would like to thank Gary for his invaluable contributions to Erasca over the past two years, and we wish him all the best in his future endeavors. David’s broad experience as a management consultant, investor and operator will continue to contribute greatly to Erasca’s growth as a leading precision oncology company."
About Wei Lin, M.D.
Dr. Lin joins Erasca from Nektar Therapeutics, where he was senior vice president and head of development as well as a member of the executive committee. He was responsible for all development functions and the clinical development of Nektar’s pipeline, including advancing bempegaldesleukin into multiple registrational trials and achieving FDA breakthrough therapy designation in metastatic melanoma. Prior to Nektar, Dr. Lin held roles of increasing responsibility at Roche/Genentech, most recently as the global development lead in cancer immunotherapy for lung cancer and head and neck cancer. Under his leadership, his team completed five positive Phase III trials and achieved three US and EU regulatory approvals for Tecentriq, including the first advancement in first-line small cell lung cancer in three decades. He was also the site head for oncology product development for Roche China, where his team achieved multiple additional regulatory approvals for Avastin, Zelboraf and Tarceva. He is a past recipient of the ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) Young Investigator Award and the AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper)-AstraZeneca Translational Lung Cancer Award. He was on faculty at MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he completed his medical oncology fellowship. He completed his internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and his B.A. in physics from Haverford College.
About David Chacko, M.D.
Prior to joining Erasca, Dr. Chacko was a principal at Versant Ventures, where he held a dual investing/operating role, helping lead investment opportunities across multiple therapeutic areas. Operationally, he was intimately involved in advancing several Versant portfolio companies through company formation, fundraising, business development, and clinical and regulatory activities. Dr. Chacko joined Versant from Alcon, where, as chief of staff to the CEO, he worked alongside the executive leadership team to develop and implement high priority corporate initiatives to accelerate growth and innovation. Prior to Alcon, Dr. Chacko was an engagement manager at McKinsey, leading multiple teams serving pharmaceutical and medical device clients. Dr. Chacko received M.D. and MBA degrees concurrently from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine/Wharton School. Prior to that, he earned an MPhil from Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar.