John Mendlein Passes Torch to New CEO at San Diego’s aTyr Pharma

San Diego-based aTyr Pharma (NASDAQ: [[ticker:LIFE]]) said John Mendlein is stepping down as president and CEO, effective today. According to a statement released after the market closed, Sanjay S. Shukla, who has served as aTyr’s chief medical officer since March 2016, is succeeding Mendlein, who plans to continue to serve on aTyr’s board as a non-executive board member.

The company says aTyr’s board of directors and management team are in “full support” of the decision. In the statement from aTyr, Mendlein says the timing is right and the company is well-positioned to develop medicines for patients with rare muscle and lung diseases, and to serve cancer patients with products derived from its new immune-oncology platform. He is quoted as saying, “After six incredible years as CEO, I am very pleased to pass the leadership torch to Sanjay and continue to advise him as a board member.”

Mendlein also serves on a number of other company boards, including Editas Medicine, Moderna Therapeutics, and Axcella Health.

In the 19 months since he joined aTyr, Shukla led the completion of three early stage clinical trials of a protein therapeutic designated “Resolaris,” and two long-term safety extension studies for the treatment of rare muscular dystrophies. Resolaris is a physiocrine-based drug candidate, intended for rare myopathies with an immune component, such as facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy and limb girdle muscular dystrophy. Shula also advanced aTyr’s iMod.Fc program for the treatment of interstitial lung diseases, with a Phase 1 trial expected to commence this quarter.

Neither Mendlein nor Shukla were available to discuss the transition.

Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.