Tessera Therapeutics: David Davidson, Hari Pujar, Lin Guey
Teressa Therapeutics has announced a trio of senior appointments: with David Davidson, M.D. as Chief Medical and Development Officer, Hari Pujar, Ph.D. as Chief Operating Officer, and Lin Guey, Ph.D. as Senior Vice President of Rare Diseases Program Strategy and Operations.
The new appointments come two months after the company announced $230m in Series B fundraising and will help advance the company’s gene writing platform and accelerate the development of multiple therapeutic programs.
Dr. Davidson brings over 20 years of expertise in clinical drug development focused on rare diseases and gene therapy to his new role as Tessera’s Chief Medical and Development Officer. For nearly a decade, Dr. Davidson served as Chief Medical Officer of bluebird bio, where he helped advance a broad genetic medicine pipeline across blood disorders, rare diseases and oncology, leading numerous genetic medicine programs into the clinic and delivering multiple first-in-class approvals for genetic medicines in the US and Europe.
Prior to bluebird, Dr. Davidson led clinical research for a wide range of therapeutic programs at Genzyme and GelTex, spanning biologics, polymers, and gene therapy.
Dr. Pujar, an Operating Partner at Flagship Pioneering (which founded Tessera Therapeutics), will also serve as Tessera’s Chief Operating Officer. Dr. Pujar brings more than 20 years of drug development, manufacturing and commercialization experience spanning AAV gene therapy, mRNA vaccines and therapeutics, and traditional vaccines and biologics.
Most recently, Dr. Pujar served as Chief Technology Officer at Spark Therapeutics, a pioneer in AAV gene therapy, and Head of Technical Development and Manufacturing at Moderna, where he led mRNA and lipid nanoparticle development and manufacturing. Dr. Pujar previously spent 18 years at Merck & Co., developing and commercializing vaccines and biologics.
Dr. Guey, Tessera’s new SVP of Rare Diseases Program Strategy and Operations, will oversee the execution of the company's genetic medicine programs in rare diseases. Dr. Guey brings over 13 years of drug development experience in program leadership, research and nonclinical development, pharmacogenomics and epidemiology. Prior to joining Tessera, she served in senior leadership roles for Moderna, Xilio Therapeutics, Shire, and Pfizer.
