Terns Pharmaceuticals Announces Leadership Changes

FOSTER CITY, Calif., May 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Terns Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Terns” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: TERN), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a portfolio of small-molecule product candidates to address serious diseases, including oncology and obesity, today announced the appointment of Scott Harris as chief development officer (CDO) effective May 28, 2024 and the upcoming departure of Erin Quirk, M.D., president, head of research and development. Dr. Quirk will be transitioning her responsibilities and leaving the company to pursue other opportunities effective June 3, 2024.  

Mr. Harris will report to the CEO and oversee clinical operations, regulatory affairs, chemistry manufacturing and controls, quality assurance and project management. Emil Kuriakose, M.D., chief medical officer, and Jeffrey Jasper, Ph.D., senior vice president and head of research, will now also report to the CEO.

“Erin has played a key role in the growth and development of Terns over the last five years and in my transition to CEO,” said Amy Burroughs, chief executive officer of Terns. “We thank Erin for her innumerable contributions and wish her continued success in her endeavors.”

“I’m proud of the many advances we have made and look forward to Terns’ continued success, building on this foundation to progress best-in-class small molecules to treat people with serious diseases,” stated Dr. Quirk.

“I have worked with Scott for many years and value the deep and diverse expertise across all areas of drug development that he brings to the leadership team at Terns,” said Ms. Burroughs. “With Emil and Scott already collaborating on our development efforts, I have every confidence in their ability to work together with the rest of the team to advance our pipeline of potential best-in-class small molecule therapies and prepare for important data readouts from our two lead programs in the second half of the year.”

Scott Harris has more than 25 years of broad cross-functional experience across a range of therapeutics areas and modalities, including directing all aspects of drug development from pre-clinical to post-marketing activities. Most recently, Mr. Harris was chief operating officer of Cleave Therapeutics, a clinical stage hematology oncology company, where he oversaw all research and development activities including the clinical advancement of its investigational therapy for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. His biopharmaceutical career has included positions of increasing responsibility at companies such as BridgeBio, Corthera, Inc., BioMarin Pharmaceutical, Angstrom Pharmaceutical, Attenuon, LLC and Adynxx, Inc. Mr. Harris started his career as a bench scientist at Biosite Inc. He earned an M.S. in Regulatory Affairs from San Diego State University (SDSU) and a B.S. in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from University of California San Diego (UCSD). He also holds an academic appointment at SDSU where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in healthcare product regulation.