Artios Pharma Expands US Leadership Team with the Appointment of Abid Ansari as Chief Financial Officer

Cambridge, UK and New York City, USA, 12th January 2021: Artios Pharma Limited (“Artios”), a leading DNA Damage Response (DDR) company developing a broad pipeline of precision medicines for the treatment of cancer, announces the appointment of Abid Ansari as Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

Abid will lead the company’s financial, investor relations, and public relations operations, where he brings a variety of US financial experience to Artios, including a background with global public companies in corporate finance, business development, licensing, and investor relations. He joins Tania Dimitrova, Chief Business Officer, in the company’s US subsidiary established since 2019.

Abid has 18 years of finance experience in life science businesses. Prior to joining Artios Pharma, he most recently served as CFO of Precision BioSciences (NASDAQ: DTIL), a next generation genome editing company.  There he helped the company raise over $300M in capital, including a $146M IPO and $110M Series B. Abid also worked at GlaxoSmithKline for five years in deal finance and portfolio management roles and at MedImmune LLC in commercial and capital finance roles.

Abid Ansari holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering and a Master of Business Administration, both from Purdue University.  He is also a CPA

Andrew Muncey, Artios’ UK-based CFO since 2016 becomes Chief Operating Officer (COO), where he will be responsible for the legal, company secretarial, HR, IT, facilities and operational functions of the company, including guiding the company in its transition from a preclinical company to a fully-fledged clinical DDR company. Andrew has over 20 years of management experience in biotechnology and a background in investment banking, capital markets and corporate finance.

Niall Martin, Chief Executive Officer of Artios, said: “I am delighted to welcome Abid to Artios at this exciting time for the company, as we look to accelerate progress in our pipeline and move our first candidate into clinical development. Abid is a key addition to our Executive Management team and strengthens our presence in the US. He will play an instrumental role in guiding Artios through its future financing stages. I also would like to thank Andrew for his excellent work over the last five years as CFO and look forward to working with him in his new position as COO.”

Abid Ansari, Chief Financial Officer of Artios, said: “Artios is a world leader in the field of DNA damage response. This is an especially exciting time to join as the company makes the transition to an early-stage clinical oncology company. I am excited about working with Niall and the team to bring Artios’ transformational science to patients as precision oncology medicines.”

Media Contact Information: 

Artios Pharma Ltd: 

Niall Martin, Chief Executive Officer

Tel: +44 (0)1223 804180

 

Media:

Optimum Strategic Communications 

Mary Clark/ Manel Mateus / Alex Gunter

E: artios@optimumcomms.com

Tel: +44 (0) 203 950 9144