Epizyme Names Infinity’s Jeffery Kutok as Chief Scientific Officer

Epizyme (NASDAQ: [[ticker:EPZM]]) has appointed Jeffery Kutok as its chief scientific officer to guide the Cambridge, MA-based company’s scientific strategy following the FDA’s approval earlier this year of its first drug as a treatment for epithelioid sarcoma. Kutok was most recently executive vice president and chief scientific officer at Infinity Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:INFI]]), which is also based in Cambridge.

The Epizyme drug, tazemetostat (Tazverik), is the first FDA-approved treatment for epithelioid sarcoma, a rare and often fatal soft tissue cancer typically diagnosed in adults between 20 and 40. Epizyme has also asked the FDA to review tazemetostat as a potential treatment for follicular lymphoma, a cancer of white blood cells called lymphocytes.

Author: Sarah de Crescenzo

Sarah is Xconomy's San Diego-based editor. Prior to joining the team in 2018, she wrote about startups, tech and finance at the San Diego Business Journal. Her decade of full-time news experience includes coverage of subjects including campaign finance, crime and courts as a reporter and editor at outlets throughout California, including the Orange County Register. She earned a bachelor's degree in English Literature at UC San Diego, where she wrote for the student newspaper and played collegiate lacrosse. In 2019, she earned an MBA at UC Irvine.