Scholar Rock Appoints Beth Shafer, Ph.D., to Chief Business Officer

September 04, 2024 at 08:00 AM EDT

Scholar Rock (NASDAQ: SRRK), a late-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on advancing innovative treatments for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), cardiometabolic disorders, and other serious diseases where protein growth factors play a fundamental role, today announced the appointment of Beth Shafer, Ph.D., to the newly created role of Chief Business Officer. Ms. Shafer brings over 20 years of biopharmaceutical industry leadership and expertise to Scholar Rock, where she will drive the Company’s long-term corporate and business development strategy.

“We are pleased to welcome Beth to the executive team at a transformative time for Scholar Rock,” said Jay Backstrom, M.D., MPH, President and Chief Executive Officer of Scholar Rock. “Beth brings broad corporate strategy and business development experience which will be critical as we build an integrated biopharmaceutical company for the future and advance our pipeline of innovative therapies in high-value areas such as cardiometabolic disorders.”

“With a robust pipeline of highly differentiated growth factor-targeted therapeutics and multiple upcoming milestones across Scholar Rock’s portfolio, it is an exciting time to join Scholar Rock and help shape the company’s corporate strategy and execute development activities,” said Ms. Shafer. “I look forward to working with the team to maximize the reach of Scholar Rock’s potentially transformative therapies and deliver tremendous value to patients and their families.”

Ms. Shafer is a seasoned healthcare executive. She has led and built corporate and business development functions at several companies, and completed seminal transactions in key therapeutic areas, including neuroscience, gastroenterology, and ophthalmology. She joins Scholar Rock from Voyager Therapeutics, where she served as Chief Business Officer from 2023 to 2024. Prior to that, Ms. Shafer served as Vice President and Head of R&D Business Development at Takeda. Previously, she served as Head, Ophthalmology and Disease Area Business Development & Licensing at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research. She also served as Director, Business Development & Licensing at Roche.

Ms. Shafer has served as a member of the Board of Directors for Aquinnah Pharmaceuticals and Arcellx Inc. She currently serves as a Venture Partner to Mubadala Capital Ventures. She received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego, her M.Phil. and M.A. in Cellular and Molecular Biophysics from Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and her B.A. from Rutgers University.

About Scholar Rock

Scholar Rock is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, and delivers life-changing therapies for people with serious diseases that have high unmet need. As a global leader in the biology of the transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) superfamily of cell proteins and named for the visual resemblance of a scholar rock to protein structures, the clinical-stage company is focused on advancing innovative treatments where protein growth factors are fundamental. Over the past decade, Scholar Rock has created a pipeline with the potential to advance the standard of care for neuromuscular disease, cardiometabolic disorders, cancer, and other conditions where growth factor-targeted drugs can play a transformational role.

Scholar Rock is the only company to show clinical proof of concept for a muscle-targeted treatment in spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). This commitment to unlocking fundamentally different therapeutic approaches is powered by broad application of a proprietary platform, which has developed novel monoclonal antibodies to modulate protein growth factors with extraordinary selectivity. By harnessing cutting-edge science in disease spaces that are historically under-addressed through traditional therapies, Scholar Rock works every day to create new possibilities for patients. Learn more about our approach at ScholarRock.com and follow @ScholarRock and on LinkedIn.

Availability of Other Information About Scholar Rock

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Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements regarding Scholar Rock’s future expectations, plans and prospects, including without limitation, Scholar Rock’s expectations regarding its growth, strategy, progress and development timing, the ability of any individual to affect the growth, strategy, and progress of Scholar Rock, and the potential of its product candidates and proprietary platform. The use of words such as “may,” “might,” “could,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “project,” “intend,” “future,” “potential,” or “continue,” and other similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. All such forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations of future events and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, Scholar Rock’s ability to provide the financial support, resources and expertise necessary to identify and develop product candidates on the expected timeline, the data generated from Scholar Rock’s nonclinical and preclinical studies and clinical trials, and Scholar Rock’s ability to manage expenses and to obtain additional funding when needed to support its business activities and establish and maintain strategic business alliances and new business initiatives, as well as those risks more fully discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in Scholar Rock’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2024, as well as discussions of potential risks, uncertainties, and other important factors in Scholar Rock’s subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements represent Scholar Rock’s views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. All information in this press release is as of the date of the release, and Scholar Rock undertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law.