Nutcracker Therapeutics Strengthens Leadership Team with Appointment of Madhavan Balachandran as Chief Operating Officer
9-23-2020
Emeryville, Calif. – September 23, 2020 – Nutcracker Therapeutics, Inc., a company developing and producing mRNA therapeutics on its proprietary, microfluidic, biochip-based platform, today announced the appointment of Madhavan (“Madhu”) Balachandran, former executive vice president of operations at Amgen, as chief operating officer. Mr. Balachandran will oversee all operational aspects of the company including manufacturing and product development functions.
“Madhu initially joined Nutcracker as the chair of our CMC Advisory Board, and has been instrumental in guiding the development of our proprietary GMP-in-a-box system for developing, manufacturing, and delivering mRNA therapeutics,” said Nutcracker co-founder and CEO Igor Khandros, Ph.D. “Madhu is a manufacturing visionary, and brings strong desire, experience and organizational development expertise to applying next generation technologies to development and manufacturing of novel therapies. Madhu will be instrumental in building Nutcracker into an important company that will deliver our own and our partners’ RNA therapeutics to a multitude of patients.”
Mr. Balachandran brings decades of leadership experience in manufacturing and operations, and a record of transforming drug manufacturing through implementation of transformative new technologies. In addition to assuming his role as COO of Nutcracker, he will continue to serve as a director of Catalent, Inc., uniQure NV, A2 Biotherapeutics, and the Stevanato Group. Mr. Balachandran received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, an M.S. in chemical engineering from the State University of New York in Buffalo, and an MBA from East Carolina University.
“I am delighted to join Nutcracker to help drive the company’s next phase of evolution,” said Mr. Balachandran. “I believe that as new therapeutic modalities get increasingly complex and personalized, it will be essential for biopharmaceutical companies to adopt new breakthrough technologies in order to fully unlock the potential of these drugs to help patients worldwide. I am convinced that Nutcracker’s platform represents a dramatic leap forward for RNA therapeutics, and I am eager to help the company advance its proprietary mRNA programs and deploy the technology through strategic partnerships.”
About Nutcracker Therapeutics, Inc.
Founded in 2018, Nutcracker Therapeutics is bringing the combined power of high-technology engineering and advanced biosynthesis to RNA therapeutics through its push-button mRNA synthesis and formulation platform. Armed with this high-tech advantage, we will advance mRNA therapeutics into the clinic and engage in strategic partnerships with clinical institutions and pharmaceutical/biotech companies. Our GMP-in-a-box approach to manufacturing is expected to offer significant cost, cycle time, capacity and point-of-care execution advantages over other RNA manufacturing approaches. Supporting our initial focus on mRNA therapeutics for oncology, our platform will ultimately enable the development and manufacturing of all RNA therapeutics to benefit patients worldwide.
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