Fore Biotherapeutics Strengthens Leadership Team with Executive and Board Appointments

PHILADELPHIA–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Fore Biotherapeutics (formerly NovellusDx), a precision oncology company focused on providing people with rare cancer mutations rapid access to the right medicines, today announced the expansion of its leadership team with the appointments of Stacie Peacock Shepherd, M.D., Ph.D., as Chief Medical Officer and Nora Brennan as Chief Financial Officer. Additionally, experienced biopharma executive Meenu Chhabra will join the company’s Board of Directors and serve as Audit Chair. These key appointments, which follow the establishment of Fore’s new U.S. headquarters in Philadelphia, will support the company’s efforts to become a global leader in precision oncology therapeutics.

Dr. Shepherd is an accomplished biotech leader and expert in oncology drug development and will oversee the clinical strategy and operational advancement of Fore’s lead precision oncology program, FORE8394, as well as the continued expansion of Fore’s clinical pipeline over the coming months. Ms. Brennan brings deep experience as a financial and investment strategist to the Fore team and will lead Fore’s financial strategy and oversee the development of core G&A capabilities to scale the company.

“I am honored and privileged to welcome industry leaders Stacie and Nora to Fore’s executive leadership team. With our global HQ established in Philadelphia; an exciting next-generation BRAF asset that can address areas of high unmet need using Foresight, our functional genomics platform; an active business development pipeline to scale our clinical portfolio in the coming months; and investor excitement around our story that allows us the opportunity to further bolster our balance sheet, the timing couldn’t be better for these world-class leaders to help build and scale the company alongside me. I am excited to build an intellectually diverse, results-oriented and compassionate team that continues to focus on evolving the precision oncology model to have meaningful impact on the lives of both patients and caregivers,” said Usama Malik, Chief Executive Officer at Fore Biotherapeutics. “I am confident that Stacie and Nora’s collaborative energy, industry know-how and breadth of experience will position Fore for both financial growth and clinical success. I am also delighted to welcome Meenu to our Board of Directors and look forward to working closely with her and the rest of the Board as we work to identify unique solutions to serve unaddressed cancer patient populations.”

An accomplished physician-scientist with over a decade of experience in clinical and translational oncology drug development, Dr. Shepherd served as Senior Vice President of Clinical Development at QED Therapeutics before joining Fore, where she led oncology program clinical development, operations and translational science. Prior to QED Therapeutics, she served as Vice President, Oncology at Corcept Therapeutics, where she established a translational research program, and at AbbVie, where as Senior Medical Director she led clinical development of PARP inhibitor programs in ovarian cancer and BRCA-mutated breast cancer. Dr. Shepherd received her M.D./Ph.D. in Medicine and Neuroscience through the Medical Scholars Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and trained in Pediatrics at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Pediatric Endocrinology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

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