LEXINGTON, Mass.– KSQ Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing therapies to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases using its proprietary, integrated discovery CRISPRomics® platform, today announced the appointment of Mahesh Karande, President and CEO of Omega Therapeutics, to the company’s board of directors.
“Mahesh’s deep experience in company leading, product commercialization, fundraising, and deal-making are great additions to the skillset we’ve assembled on our board,” said Qasim Rizvi, Chief Executive Officer of KSQ Therapeutics. “His insights and guidance will be invaluable as we continue to advance KSQ-4279 through clinical studies and work towards bringing our engineered TIL (eTIL™) cell therapy programs into the clinic.”
“KSQ’s platform and science are impressive and have yielded multiple exciting and novel targets that provide significant opportunities to help patients with various cancers and solid tumors,” said Karande. “I look forward to working closely with the company to maximize the potential of its programs, including KSQ-4279 and the eTIL cell therapy franchise, and I’m excited to see where the CRISPRomics platform can take us as we move into new and exciting areas, including NK cells, Tregs and myeloid cells.”
Mahesh is the President and CEO of Omega Therapeutics (Nasdaq: OMGA), a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering Omega Epigenomic Controllers, a new class of programmable mRNA medicines. At Omega, he has led the company’s development of their Epigenomic Programming platform and the translation of novel science into a broad pipeline in oncology, regenerative medicine, immunology, inflammatory conditions, and important monogenic conditions. Before Omega, he was CEO of Macrolide Pharma, where he re-assessed the company’s core strategy and optimized a path forward for the highest shareholder return. Mahesh previously held numerous leadership roles at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, most recently as a corporate-level Vice President and US franchise Head leading the oncology solid tumors business. He also served as President of Africa, President of Egypt and Regional Vice President of strategy and business development for emerging markets, where he oversaw the execution of more than 50 partnership deals. He has led more than 10 product launches in the U.S. and across global markets. Prior to entering the pharmaceutical industry, Mahesh worked for the global management consulting firm McKinsey.
Mahesh has an M.B.A. from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He is also a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he completed his M.S. in engineering, and the University of Bombay, where he completed undergraduate studies in engineering.
