SAN DIEGO– Lengo Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company developing novel precision medicines targeting driver mutations in oncology, today announced the appointment of Enoch K. Kariuki, Pharm.D., as Chief Executive Officer.
Dr. Kariuki is an accomplished industry leader with broad experience in healthcare strategy, life sciences finance, operations and business development. Prior to joining Lengo, Dr. Kariuki was Chief Financial Officer at VelosBio, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel, first-in-class cancer therapies targeting ROR1, which was acquired by Merck in 2020 for $2.75 billion.
Prior to VelosBio, Dr. Kariuki served as Senior Vice President, Corporate Development at Synthorx, Inc., where he led the company’s initial public offering, managed relationships with bankers, sell-side equity analysts and investors, and led the business development process that concluded with the successful sale of Synthorx to Sanofi for $2.5 billion.
Dr. Kariuki was previously Vice President at H.I.G. Capital, where he led investments into, and served on boards of, several life sciences companies. His roles prior to H.I.G. include Senior Associate at Leerink Partners and Associate Director at UBS Investment Bank. At Leerink and UBS, Dr. Kariuki advised healthcare companies on equity capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, and recapitalizations.
“Enoch brings to Lengo extensive experience leading high-performing teams in the private and public sectors. His background in global finance and operations, as well as his track record of financing and building biotech companies, is exactly the type of leader Lengo needs as we advance into our next phase of growth,” said Dave Johnson, Chairman at Lengo Therapeutics. “Enoch will be an invaluable asset to Lengo, and I look forward to working with him again to build a best-in-class pipeline targeting driver mutations in oncology.”
“I am excited to join Lengo at such an exciting time. I look forward to working with Dave, our Board members and the senior management and scientific teams to help advance our pipeline of differentiated, best-in-class targeted oncology therapeutics,” said Enoch Kariuki, Pharm.D., Chief Executive Officer at Lengo Therapeutics.
Dr. Kariuki completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in R&D Strategy and Analytics at Bristol Myers Squibb and was a Pharmacist at CVS Caremark. He holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and a PharmD from Texas Southern University. He serves on the boards of Zentalis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ZNTL) and Imago Biosciences.
