SAN DIEGO, April 13, 2020 /PRNewswire/ – Avidity Biosciences (Avidity), a privately-held biopharmaceutical company pioneering Antibody Oligonucleotide Conjugates (AOCs™), announced today the appointment of Carsten Boess to its board of directors.  Mr. Boess, who has nearly thirty years of industry experience as a finance executive and board member, brings a wealth of experience in financing, leading and growing biotechnology companies.

“Carsten’s deep financial expertise and industry experience makes him a great addition to our board,” said Sarah Boyce, President and CEO of Avidity. “His strong strategic and operational insight will be highly valuable as we grow and we’re thrilled to welcome him to Avidity.”

Mr. Boess also serves on the Board of Directors and is Chair of the Audit Committee at Rocket Pharmaceuticals, a public biopharmaceutical company, and Achilles Therapeutics, a private, London-based biopharmaceutical company.  Prior to serving in his board roles, Mr. Boess held executive level positions within industry including Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs at Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Synageva Biopharma Corporation (until its acquisition by Alexion Pharmaceuticals) and Chief Financial Officer at Alexion Pharmaceuticals.  In addition, Mr. Boess served as Chief Financial Officer, and later, as Vice President of International Operations at Insulet Corporation, Executive Vice President of Finance at Serono Inc., and in several financial executive roles at Novozymes of North America and Novo Nordisk in France, Switzerland and China.  During his tenure at Novo Nordisk, he served on Novo Nordisk’s Global Finance Board.

Carsten Boess commented, “Joining the Avidity board is a unique opportunity to contribute to the growth of a high-science biopharmaceutical company with an exciting platform. The AOC approach to drug discovery and development has the potential to be a game-changer and I am excited to help Avidity deliver significant value to patients.”

About Avidity Biosciences

Avidity Biosciences, Inc. is pioneering a new class of oligonucleotide-based therapies called AOCs designed to overcome the current limitations of oligonucleotide therapies in order to treat a wide range of serious diseases. Avidity utilizes its proprietary AOC platform to design, engineer and develop therapeutics that combine the tissue selectivity of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and the precision of oligonucleotide therapies in order to access previously undruggable tissue and cell types and more effectively target underlying genetic drivers of diseases.  The company’s lead product candidate, AOC 1001, is designed to treat myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) and its four other muscle programs are focused on the treatment of muscle atrophy, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy and Pompe disease. In addition to its muscle franchise, Avidity has development efforts focused on immune and other cell types. In April 2019, Avidity and Eli Lilly announced a strategic collaboration to utilize Avidity’s AOC technology to pursue mRNA targets initially in immunology and other select indications outside of muscle.

For more information, please visit www.aviditybiosciences.com.

Contacts:

Company:
Leslie Ann Kerins
(858) 401-7900
leslie@aviditybio.com

Media and Investors:
Amy Conrad
Juniper Point
858-366-3243
amy@juniper-point.com