Biogen’s former executive VP of research and development Douglas Williams has joined a new Cambridge, US-based start-up company.
He has been appointed president and CEO of Codiak BioSciences, which will focus on developing exosomes – cell-derived delivery systems – for the treatment of a wide array of diseases, including cancer.
Williams said: “I look forward to building a world-class team to harness the power of exosomes for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes. We seek to grow Codiak into the leader in this emerging field as we strive to make new, breakthrough medicines that provide significant and lasting patient benefit.”
He served at Biogen from January 2011 to July 2015, joining that firm from ZymoGenetics, where he was CEO and a member of the board of directors.
During Williams’ tenure at ZymoGenetics the US biotech was acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb for $985m and prior to his time there he held several leadership positions within the biotechnology industry.
These included serving as chief scientific officer and executive vice president of research and development at Seattle Genetics and as senior vice president and Washington site leader at Amgen.
Williams also served in a series of scientific and senior leadership positions for more than a decade at Immunex Corp.