Kyverna Therapeutics has reshaped its C-suite just seven months after securing one of the splashiest biotech IPOs in recent years as it rode the waves of cell therapy’s expansion into the autoimmune field.
Peter MaagPeter Maag resigned as CEO and board director on Friday, the company said Monday morning. His separation agreement included a “release of claims against” Kyverna, the company disclosed in a Monday SEC filing. Maag didn’t immediately respond to an Endpoints News phone inquiry.
Warner Biddle, who was recently global head of commercial at Gilead’s CAR-T unit Kite Pharma, has replaced Maag.
“Kyverna today sits on the precipice of its next chapter, as KYV-101 is progressing rapidly into later stages of development and embarking on a path to market. This introduces new and exciting opportunities, which Peter and the Board recognized the company must evolve to meet,” chairman Ian Clark said in a press release.
Joining Biddle on the board is former Kite CEO Christi Shaw, who replaces departing board member Brian Kotzin. She left Kite last year and has since taken up board positions at ReAlta Life Sciences and Beam Therapeutics, as well as an advisory board post at Cellares.
Kyverna’s stock price $KYTX has cratered 76% since its February debut as the autoimmune cell therapy space has become oversaturated. Cell therapies entail a complex and expensive manufacturing process, and the broader cell and gene field has struggled to maintain the high levels of investor appetite that it garnered a few years ago.
However, the company had been viewed by some analysts as a solid player in the space. Leerink Partners analyst Thomas Smith wrote in a note last month that Kyverna had a “differentiated CAR construct, promising early clinical data across multiple diseases/sites/investigators, and an impressive scale that positions the company as a significant player in this emerging modality.”
The biotech’s CD19-based pipeline spans multiple autoimmune-related rheumatology and neurology conditions, including lupus nephritis, systemic sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, multiple sclerosis and stiff-person syndrome. It also has a collaboration with Intellia to apply CRISPR/Cas9 technology to its cell therapy.
Maag’s departure is reminiscent of Shao-Lee Lin’s exit as CEO of Acelyrin after she led last year’s largest biotech IPO.
Kyverna had $346.2 million in cash, equivalents and available-for-sale marketable securities at the end of June, it said in a second-quarter update last month.