Morphic Appoints Acceleron’s Peter Linde as Its Chief Medical Officer

Morphic Therapeutic (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MORF]]) on Tuesday named Peter Linde as its chief medical officer.

Linde was most recently vice president of medical research at Acceleron Pharma (NASDAQ: [[ticker:XLRN]]), where he oversaw the design and execution of clinical trials including late-stage development work on luspatercept, a drug the FDA approved last year for patients with the rare blood disorder beta thalassemia. His previous experience includes roles at AbbVie (NYSE: [[ticker:ABBV]]), FibroGen (NASDAQ: [[ticker:FGEN]]), and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: [[ticker:JNJ]]).

Waltham, MA-based Morphic is developing small molecule drugs that target a class of receptors called integrins. The company anticipates its lead drug candidate—an investigational treatment for inflammatory bowel disease—will enter this clinic this year.

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.