Foghorn Therapeutics Announces Chief Scientific Officer Succession

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 10, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Foghorn^® Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: FHTX), a company pioneering the discovery and development of a new class of medicines targeting genetically determined dependencies within the chromatin regulatory system, announced Steven Bellon, Ph.D., currently Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery, is promoted to Chief Scientific Officer, effective today, January 10, 2022. Carl Decicco, Ph.D., is retiring from his role as Chief Scientific Officer at Foghorn. 

“I want to thank Carl for his many contributions to building and scaling Foghorn’s pipeline culminating in two programs entering Phase 1 clinical studies in 2021,” said Adrian Gottschalk, Chief Executive Officer, Foghorn. “Carl has built a strong scientific team during his tenure and has been a valued partner to me and the entire Foghorn organization.”

Gottschalk continued, “Steven was the second employee of Foghorn and was instrumental in building our proprietary platform enabling our drug discovery activities. His experience at Foghorn and his deep scientific knowledge will be essential in continuing to discover and develop new therapies.”

Steven Bellon, Ph.D., joined Foghorn Therapeutics in 2016 as head of drug discovery, bringing more than 20 years of drug discovery experience from multiple drug classes. During his tenure at Foghorn, Steven has been instrumental in building Foghorn’s Gene Traffic Control^® platform and advancing the Company’s broad therapeutic pipeline of over 15 programs including protein degraders, enzymatic inhibitors and transcription factor disruptors.

Prior to joining Foghorn, Steven was executive director and head of structural biology, and lead discovery and project management at Constellation Pharmaceuticals. Steven has a passion for drugging novel targets and has contributed to many drug discovery efforts in oncology including those for p38, HCV helicase, cMet, BET, EZH2, and numerous bromodomains. Prior to his work at Constellation, he held positions of increasing responsibility at Amgen and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Steven received a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from MIT under the direction of Stephen Lippard and then completed postdoctoral training at Yale University with Thomas Steitz, Nobel Laureate, funded by a Damon Runyon fellowship.

“I am thrilled to assume the role of Chief Scientific Officer at Foghorn and to continue to drive our science forward. I am excited about the tremendous potential in our pipeline and the opportunities to discover and develop additional first in class targets and therapies,” said Dr. Steven Bellon.

Dr. Carl Decicco commented, “It has been a privilege to serve as Foghorn’s Chief Scientific Officer for the past three years. I am proud of the broad and deep pipeline that we have built and the talent we have attracted to the organization. I look forward to watching Foghorn continue to grow and succeed.”

About Foghorn Therapeutics

Foghorn^® Therapeutics is discovering and developing a novel class of medicines targeting genetically determined dependencies within the chromatin regulatory system. Through its proprietary scalable Gene Traffic Control^® platform, Foghorn is systematically studying, identifying and validating potential drug targets within the chromatin regulatory system. The company is developing multiple product candidates in oncology with two currently being investigated in clinical studies.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” regarding the Company’s clinical programs for FHD-286. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding the Company’s collaboration with Lilly and its other research and development efforts and other statements identified by words such as “could,” “may,” “might,” “will,” “likely,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “seeks,” “believes,” “estimates,” “expects,” “continues,” “projects” and similar references to future periods. Forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions regarding capital market conditions, our business, the economy and other future conditions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, by their nature, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. As a result, actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include regional, national or global political, economic, business, competitive, market and regulatory conditions, including risk regarding the timing of filing an IND for our product candidates and other factors set forth under the heading “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Form 10-K. Any forward-looking statement made in this press release speaks only as of the date on which it is made.

Contact:

Ben Strain, Foghorn Therapeutics (Media and Investors)
bstrain@foghorntx.com

Gregory Kelley, Ogilvy (Media)
gregory.kelley@ogilvy.com

Hans Vitzthum, LifeSci Advisors (Investors)
hans@lifesciadvisors.com