Appointments


Alfonso Quintás-Cardama to join Foghorn Therapeutics as new chief medical officer

The biotechnology company Foghorn Therapeutics has announced the addition of the new chief medical officer, Alfonso Quintás-Cardama, who will be replacing Sam Agresta after his retirement on 11 September 2023. The clinical-stage biotech company specialises in correcting abnormal gene expression in order to treat diseases.

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Adrian Gottschalk, president and chief executive officer at Foghorn, commented: “I want to thank Sam for his leadership and many contributions to Foghorn over the past four years. He joined the company at a critical time and built our clinical team which advanced our first programmes to the clinic. […] We are excited to welcome Alfonso to the Foghorn team. Alfonso’s experience and expertise in oncology and as a leukaemia expert will be integral to our plans as we continue to advance our pipeline and develop medicines for patients.”

Dr Agresta will remain available to provide consulting services until early 2024.

Dr Quintás-Cardama was previously the head of clinical development for cell therapies at GSK, and also worked as the clinical leader at Novartis, where he led the development of the first FDA-approved CAR T-cell therapy. Most recently, he was the chief medical officer at TCR2, where he led the development of the company’s cell therapy platform from 2017.

Quintás-Cardama said, “As a leader in understanding and drugging chromatin biology, Foghorn is uniquely positioned to develop the next class of cancer medicines. I am excited to join Foghorn given the company’s broad pipeline coupled with a platform that has enabled the drugging of some of the most compelling targets in cancer. I am looking forward to being part of the Foghorn journey as the company continues to address unmet needs in cancer and brings potential therapies to people who need it the most.”