Dr. Sanjiv K. Patel appointed President and CEO of Relay Therapeutics

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NEW YORK: Relay Therapeutics, a biotech company dedicated to developing breakthrough medicines by focusing on insights in protein motion, today announced the appointment of Dr. Sanjiv K. Patel, to President and CEO.

Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Relay Therapeutics is a private company launched in 2016 with $57 million in Series A financing from Third Rock Ventures and an affiliate of D. E. Shaw Research.

Relay Therapeutics is building the first dedicated drug discovery pipeline centered on protein motion. Bringing together the latest scientific advances in structural biology, biophysics, computation, chemistry and biology, Relay’s drug discovery engine illuminates the full mobility of a protein and the ways in which protein motion regulates function, according to a press release.

Patel brings to Relay over 20 years of life sciences industry experience. He succeeds interim CEO Alexis Borisy, a Partner at Third Rock Ventures, who is assuming the position of Chairman of the company’s Board of Directors, according to the release.

“We are thrilled to welcome Sanjiv as the CEO of Relay Therapeutics. Sanjiv’s strategic acumen and business experience coupled with his deep commitment to patients will help fulfill the transformational potential of Relay,” said Borisy, in a statement. “Along with this key leadership appointment, our new board members, Laura Shawver and Markus Warmuth bring to Relay an incredible depth of research, development and entrepreneurial experience in building great biotech drugs and companies. We are enthusiastic to partner with them as Board members as we build a great company that will make a transformative difference for patients.”

Prior to Relay, Patel was at Allergan for over 10 years, and played a key part in Allergan’s sustained growth and value creation over that period. He was most recently part of Allergan’s Executive Team, as Chief Strategy Officer and at the center of some of the industry’s largest transactions. Prior to this, he held roles of increased responsibility, including leading Global Strategic Marketing for all franchises and general management of Allergan’s fastest growth geographic region, the Emerging Markets.

Prior to Allergan, Patel was a Management Consultant at Boston Consulting Group in London and he started his career as a surgeon in the U.K.’s National Health Service. Dr. Patel received his MBA from INSEAD, MBBS from the University of London and has a M.A. in Neurosciences from Cambridge University.

“This is a rare opportunity to join a team that is fully dedicated to treating diseases where today, no truly effective therapy exists,” said Patel, in a statement. “Relay is uniquely positioned to design innovative drugs by visualizing protein motion through integrating emerging computational and experimental methods. I look forward to working with the team to build a pipeline of groundbreaking therapies with an initial focus in oncology.”