Jerry McMahon to navigate STORM into lab

STORM Therapeutics, a UK biotech discovering and developing small molecule therapies targeting RNA modification enzymes for oncology and other diseases, has announced the appointment of Gerald McMahon as president, chief executive and board director.

Commonly known as Jerry, he brings with him more than 30 years of biotechnology leadership, scientific innovation, creative deal-making, and financing experience with a broad disease area expertise and a specialty in oncology therapeutics.

Before joining STORM, Dr McMahon was president and chief executive of Harpoon Therapeutics, helping to build the company from early stage through to IPO, follow-on financings, and development collaborations. Prior to this, he held numerous roles including president and chief executive of Kolltan Pharmaceuticals which was acquired by Celldex, senior VP for oncology at Medimmune, now part of AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN). Additionally, he was the president at SUGEN, a firm subsequently acquired by Pharmacia and then Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), and where he played a significant role in the development of several ground-breaking protein kinase inhibitors including sunitinib, a drug branded as Sutent.