Zentalis Pharmaceuticals Announces the Appointment of Dr. Enoch Kariuki to its Board of Directors

NEW YORK & SAN DIEGO, Feb. 10, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zentalis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ZNTL), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing small molecule therapeutics targeting fundamental biological pathways of cancers, today announced the appointment of Enoch Kariuki, PharmD, to its Board of Directors. Dr. Kariuki is a highly accomplished finance executive, bringing over a decade of deep expertise in life sciences investment banking, strategic advising and business development to Zentalis.

“We are pleased to welcome Enoch to our Board of Directors, and believe his experience as a financial leader in the healthcare sector will offer invaluable perspective for our growing organization,” said Dr. Anthony Sun, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Zentalis Pharmaceuticals. “Over the course of his career, Enoch has played a pivotal role in follow-on offerings and multibillion-dollar mergers and acquisitions, and we look forward to applying his guidance and learnings to Zentalis’ corporate financial strategy.”

Dr. Kariuki most recently served as Chief Financial Officer at VelosBio, a clinical-stage oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company, which was acquired by Merck. At VelosBio, he led all finance-related and investor relations functions. Prior to VelosBio, he served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Synthorx. During his tenure, he led the company’s IPO as well as business development efforts leading up to its acquisition by Sanofi. Previously, Dr. Kariuki was Vice President at H.I.G. Capital, where he invested in and served on the boards of multiple life sciences companies. Earlier in his career, Dr. Kariuki held various roles in investment banking at Leerink Partners and UBS Investment Bank.

He completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in R&D Strategy and Analytics at Bristol Myers Squibb and was a Pharmacist at CVS Caremark. Dr. Kariuki received an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and a PharmD from Texas Southern University.

“I am honored to join Zentalis’ Board and to serve as the Chair of the Audit Committee,” commented Enoch Kariuki, PharmD. “I am eager to work closely with the Zentalis team to provide collaborative and meaningful contributions as they navigate bringing potentially differentiated cancer therapeutics to patients.”

About Zentalis

Zentalis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing small molecule therapeutics targeting fundamental biological pathways of cancers. The Company is developing a broad pipeline of potentially best-in-class oncology candidates, including ZN-c5, an oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) for ER+/HER2- breast cancer, ZN-c3, a WEE1 inhibitor, ZN-d5, a BCL-2 inhibitor and ZN-e4, an EGFR inhibitor. Zentalis has operations in both New York and San Diego.

For more information, please visit www.zentalis.com. Follow Zentalis on Twitter at @ZentalisP and on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/zentalis-pharmaceuticals.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including without limitation statements regarding Dr. Kariuki’s expected contributions to our board, our growth strategy and our expectations surrounding the development, potential, safety, efficacy, and regulatory and clinical progress of our product candidates in the Unites States and globally. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the following: the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19, has adversely impacted and may continue to adversely impact our business, including our preclinical studies and clinical trials; our limited operating history, which may make it difficult to evaluate our current business and predict our future success and viability; we have and expect to continue to incur significant losses; our need for additional funding, which may not be available; our substantial dependence on the success of our lead product candidate; failure to identify additional product candidates and develop or commercialize marketable products; the early stage of our development efforts; potential unforeseen events during clinical trials could cause delays or other adverse consequences; risks relating to the regulatory approval process or ongoing regulatory obligations; failure to obtain U.S. or international marketing approval; our product candidates may cause serious adverse side effects; inability to maintain our collaborations, or the failure of these collaborations; our reliance on third parties; effects of significant competition; the possibility of system failures or security breaches; risks relating to intellectual property; our ability to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel; and significant costs as a result of operating as a public company. These and other important factors discussed under the caption “Risk Factors” in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended September 30, 2020 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and our other filings with the SEC could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements made in this press release. Any such forward-looking statements represent management’s estimates as of the date of this press release. While we may elect to update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we disclaim any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause our views to change.

Investor Contact:
Thomas Hoffmann
Solebury Trout
1.646.378.2931
thoffmann@soleburytrout.com

Media Contact:
Julia Deutsch
Solebury Trout
1.646.378.2967
jdeutsch@soleburytrout.com