Spero Therapeutics, LLC, a biopharmaceutical company founded to develop novel therapies for the treatment of bacterial infections, announced the appointment of John Tomayko, M.D., as Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Tomayko, who is board certified in internal medicine and infectious disease, brings more than 20 years of experience in the development of innovative antibacterial compounds to the pioneering efforts at Spero, in addition to expertise in the rational design of clinical development pathways. Other recent additions to the Spero team include, Scott Coleman, Ph.D., as Head of Nonclinical Development and Tim Keutzer as Vice President of Development. Milind S. Deshpande, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Achillion, who has served on the Spero Board of Directors since inception, has been elevated to the position of Chairman of the Board. He succeeds Jean Francois Formela of Atlas Venture, Spero’s founding investor, as Chair.

Corresponding to the significant advancements in the Spero pipeline, the company has also signed on Jeffrey Stein and Patrick Vink as Strategic Advisors. Drs. Stein and Vink are highly-regarded drug industry executives who bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to Spero. Dr. Stein has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Cidara Therapeutics since 2014 and Dr. Vink was most recently Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc.

“The uncompromising vision, high-quality science and dynamic culture at Spero continue to attract the best of the best in the anti-infective drug development arena. We attract leaders willing to advance novel strategies for the urgent pursuit of therapies that can treat highly resistant bacterial infections,” said Ankit Mahadevia, M.D., Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Spero. “We are very excited to have such a talented team in place as we continue our evolution into a clinical stage company in 2016.”

“The anti-infective drug development sector is experiencing a revolution in scientific and clinical opportunity and Spero has uniquely capitalized on these opportunities to rapidly create a significant pipeline of novel drug candidates with the potential to be the first new mechanisms of action for gram-negative bacterial infections in 40 years,” said Milind Deshpande, Spero Chairman. “It is an exciting honor to be collaborating with such a high caliber group of scientists and executives, and I look forward to supporting the clinical milestones expected in the year ahead.”

John Tomayko, joins Spero after fourteen years at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) where he most recently served as Senior Director of Clinical Development in the Infectious Diseases. His tenure at GSK included the development of four antibacterial compounds in addition to an investigational therapy for severe sepsis. He has been a leading advocate in the effort to streamline the clinical development pathways for antibacterial agents addressing unmet need. He is a panelist on the Brookings Council of Antibacterial Drug Development, a member the Infectious Diseases Society of America, Society of Critical Care Medicine, and American Society of Microbiology. He is an author or co-author of over twenty seven abstracts and peer-reviewed articles in such journals as Critical Care Medicine, Antibacterial Agents and Chemotherapy, and Lancet Infectious Diseases. John holds an M.D. degree from the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Rush Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago, and completed a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston where he received a National Foundation of Infectious Diseases Fellowship award. He is board certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases.

Tim Keutzer has more than 20 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry, spanning multiple functional and therapeutic areas. Before joining Spero, he was Vice President of Program and Portfolio Management at Cubist Pharmaceuticals. While there, he was the program leader for ceftolozane/tazobactam, which progressed rapidly from phase 1 to phase 3 clinical development, and received market clearance by the U.S Food and Drug Administration in December of 2014. Prior to that role, he also led several of Cubist’s in-licensed development programs, and also led the commercial supply chain for Cubicin. His experience before Cubist spans the drug development continuum across multiple drug classes, and includes preclinical PK/PD and clinical operations at Genetics Institute, as well as global strategic marketing and program management at Wyeth. Tim began his career in contract toxicology labs. He studied English and microbiology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY.

Prior to Spero, Scott Coleman worked at Cubist Pharmaceuticals as Senior Director of Discovery Toxicology and DMPK where he worked on antibacterial and pain programs. During his nine years at Cubist, he oversaw the nonclinical discovery efforts from exploratory programs through candidate selection with multiple compounds successfully moving into the clinic. In addition, he worked closely with business development with due diligence on several opportunities including both Sivextro (tedizolid phosphate) and Zerbaxa (ceftolozane/tazobactam). Prior to his time at Cubist, Dr. Coleman had increasing roles of responsibility at Millennium Pharmaceuticals over six years working on inflammation and oncology programs both in discovery and clinical development. Scott holds a B.S. in Toxicology from Northeastern University, a Ph.D. in Toxicology from North Carolina State University, and completed post-doctoral training at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is currently on the editorial board for The International Journal of Toxicology, the journal for The American College of Toxicology.

Jeffrey Stein, Ph.D., has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Cidara Therapeutics since 2014. Previously, Jeff was Chief Executive Officer of Trius Therapeutics from its founding in 2007 until its acquisition by Cubist Pharmaceuticals in September of 2013. He was also the founding Chairman and President of the Antibiotics Working Group. As a Venture Partner and Kauffman Fellow with Sofinnova Ventures, he opened the firm’s San Diego office in 2005. Prior to joining Sofinnova, Jeff was co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Quorex Pharmaceuticals which was acquired by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in 2005. Earlier in his career, Jeff held the position of Principal Scientist with Diversa Corporation and at the Agouron Institute. He conducted his postdoctoral research as an Alexander Hollaender Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology and his graduate work as a NASA Graduate Student Researcher Fellow at the University of California at San Diego.

Patrick Vink, was most recently Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc., since January 1, 2015. He previously served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cubist’s International Business. Prior to joining Cubist, Patrickserved as Senior Vice President, Global Head of Hospital Business and Global Head of Biologics for Mylan Inc. He joined Mylan in 2008, and established the company’s operations in Switzerland, which was the basis of a number of global functions. Dr. Vink was also responsible for the company’s biosimilars market entry. Prior to Mylan, Patrick held several leadership positions across the industry, including Head of Business Franchise Biopharmaceuticals for Novartis Sandoz; Director, Central Europe and VP International Sales for Biogen; and Head of Worldwide Marketing, Cardiovascular and Thrombosis for Sanofi-Synthelabo. He received an M.D. from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands in 1988 and an M.B.A. in 1992 from Erasmus University/William E. Simon School. He serves as a non-executive Director of Inhibikase, Inc.

About Spero

Spero is a product-focused biopharmaceutical company developing a pipeline of novel treatments for bacterial infections and is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company’s pipeline of anti-infective agents is one of the most unique in the industry – focused exclusively on gram-negative bacterial infections. The Spero Potentiator program provides the opportunity to increase the power of standard of care by enhancing existing drugs through a dramatic increase in their potency against multi-drug resistant gram-negative bacteria. Spero’s MvfR inhibitor program works differently from existing antibiotics by targeting a pathway involved in two critical bacterial processes: virulence and persistence. Spero’s pipeline of drug candidates may uniquely reduce the morbidity caused by severe infections and promote their clearance, including in bacterial strains highly resistant to even the most potent existing antibiotics. The investors in Spero include Atlas Venture, SR One, The Partners Innovation Fund, Lundbeckfond Ventures, MRL Ventures, and The Kraft Group. For more information, please visit www.sperotherapeutics.com.