Former Merck Commercial President Dawn Svoronos joins ACELYRIN, INC. Board of Directors

December 13, 2022

  • Industry veteran and sought-after Board Director brings more than 30 years of experience as a US and international leader in Biopharma

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- AaACELYRIN, INC., a late-stage clinical biopharma company focused on accelerating the development and delivery of transformative medicines in immunology, today announced the appointment of biopharma commercial leader Dawn Svoronos to its board of directors.

Ms. Svoronos brings to ACELYRIN extensive industry expertise including nearly 25 years of executive commercial leadership experience gained at Merck & Co. Inc. Prior to her retirement from Merck in 2011, she served as President of Europe/Canada, President of Canada, Vice President of Asia Pacific and Head of Global Marketing for the Arthritis, Analgesics and Osteoporosis franchises. During her career, Ms. Svoronos has led teams managing the global brand positioning, market and competitive intelligence, pricing and lifecycle strategies for many products across multiple therapeutic areas. Additionally, in 2014, while a member of the board of directors for Medivation Inc., she also served as interim chief commercial officer and oversaw sales and marketing of the company's blockbuster oncology therapy, XTANDI®. 

Ms. Svoronos also has extensive experience as a corporate director in the biotechnology sector for both public and private companies. She is currently Chair of the Board for Theratechnologies Inc. (THTX), Lead Independent Director for Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. (XENE) and member of the board for Adverum Biotechnologies Inc. (ADVM). Ms. Svoronos is also a member of the board of Agnovos Bioscience, a privately held organization in New York. She was previously a director of Medivation prior to its acquisition by Pfizer, a director of Global Blood Therapeutics prior to its acquisition by Pfizer, a director of Endocyte Inc. prior to its acquisition by Novartis, and a director of PTC Therapeutics Inc.

Shao-Lee Lin, MD, PhD, co-founder and CEO of ACELYRIN, said "I am delighted to welcome Dawn to our board of directors. Her proven success as a commercial leader in both the US and globally will be particularly valuable to ACELYRIN as we move our late-stage pipeline toward commercialization."

"I am pleased to join the ACELYRIN Board of Directors at this exciting time for the company," said Ms. Svoronos. "With multiple late-stage clinical trials underway, I look forward to working with Shao-Lee and her leadership team to bring my experience to ACELYRIN in preparing for commercialization of izokibep and other future therapies."

Ms. Svoronos received a BA from Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

About ACELYRIN

ACELYRIN, INC. is a Los Angeles area-based biopharma company – with additional operations in the San Francisco Bay area – focused on providing patients life-changing new treatment options by identifying, acquiring, and accelerating development and commercialization of promising drug candidates and leveraging its expertise to rapidly advance these medicines to patients. Under an exclusive licensing arrangement with Affibody AB, ACELYRIN holds global development and commercialization rights to izokibep, including in the United States, European Union, and Japan (excluding select Asian countries). For more information, please visit www.acelyrin.com

Forward Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements. While ACELYRIN, INC. considers any projections to be based on reasonable assumptions, these forward-looking statements may be called into question by numerous hazards and uncertainties, so that actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements.

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