CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 16, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --  Editas Medicine, Inc. (Nasdaq: EDIT), a clinical-stage genome editing company, today announced the appointment of Erick J. Lucera as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, effective May 17, 2023. Mr. Lucera will succeed Michelle Robertson, who has served in the role since January 2020 and is stepping down to pursue external opportunities. Ms. Robertson will remain with the Company in an advisory role through August 16, 2023, to ensure a smooth transition.

“We are thrilled to welcome Erick to the executive leadership team as our new CFO. Erick brings to Editas a proven track record of driving financial decision-making, as well as identifying and successfully closing strategic partnerships in the biotechnology field,” said Gilmore O’Neill, M.B., M.M.Sc., President and Chief Executive Officer. “We are confident that Erick joining our team will best position Editas for success as we pursue our goal of delivering life-changing medicines to patients with previously untreatable or under-treated diseases.”

Dr. O’Neill continued, “On behalf of the entire Company, I also would like to thank Michelle for her significant contributions and dedication to Editas Medicine during the past three and a half years, including positioning Editas financially to ensure our ability to meet our goals and deliver life-changing medicines to patients.”

“I am honored and excited for the opportunity to join Editas Medicine at this pivotal time as their lead asset is generating exciting human data and the Company is beginning to prepare its regulatory and commercialization strategy. Furthermore, I believe the Company has a valuable, yet underappreciated, patent portfolio. I am confident I can leverage my prior experience to help focus the Company towards the exciting vision that Gilmore has laid out to bring innovative medicines to patients and drive shareholder returns. I am looking forward to working with Gilmore, the board of directors, and the entire team at Editas Medicine, in addition to its other stakeholders,” said Erick J. Lucera, Chief Financial Officer, Editas Medicine.

Ms. Robertson added, “Being a part of Editas Medicine’s journey and helping lead to this point in the Company’s growth has been an honor. I look forward to seeing Editas’ continued success towards developing transformative medicines for people living with serious diseases around the world.”

Mr. Lucera brings to Editas more than thirty years of financial, operational, and investment experience in life sciences. He most recently served as Chief Financial Officer of AVEO Pharmaceuticals, where he helped scale the company from a clinical-stage entity, through FDA approval and commercial launch, to its acquisition by LG Chem. Prior to AVEO, Mr. Lucera served as Chief Financial Officer of commercial-stage, medical technology company Valeritas, helping develop the company’s international distribution strategy and additional indications for its insulin pump. He also has extensive business development experience from when he served as Vice President, Corporate Development at Aratana Therapeutics, where he helped significantly expand the company’s product pipeline through a series of license deals and corporate acquisitions.

Prior to his experience in industry, Mr. Lucera spent more than fifteen years in investment management as a healthcare analyst at Eaton Vance, portfolio manager of the Triathlon Life Sciences Fund at Intrepid Capital, and as head of the healthcare research team at Independence Investments. Mr. Lucera has board of directors’ experience with public companies and within the non-profit community. He holds a CPH from Harvard University, an MS from Boston College, an MBA from Indiana University, and a BS from the University of Delaware.

About Editas Medicine

As a clinical-stage genome editing company, Editas Medicine is focused on translating the power and potential of the CRISPR/Cas9 and CRISPR/Cas12a genome editing systems into a robust pipeline of treatments for people living with serious diseases around the world. Editas Medicine aims to discover, develop, manufacture, and commercialize transformative, durable, precision genomic medicines for a broad class of diseases. Editas Medicine is the exclusive licensee of Broad Institute and Harvard University’s Cas9 patent estates and Broad Institute’s Cas12a patent estate for human medicines. For the latest information and scientific presentations, please visit www.editasmedicine.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements and information within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "target," "should," "would," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. The Company may not actually achieve the plans, intentions, or expectations disclosed in these forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Actual results or events could differ materially from the plans, intentions and expectations disclosed in these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: uncertainties inherent in the initiation and completion of preclinical studies and clinical trials and clinical development of the Company’s product candidates; availability and timing of results from preclinical studies and clinical trials; whether interim results from a clinical trial will be predictive of the final results of the trial or the results of future trials; expectations for regulatory approvals to conduct trials or to market products and availability of funding sufficient for the Company’s foreseeable and unforeseeable operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements. These and other risks are described in greater detail under the caption “Risk Factors” included in the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and in other filings that the Company may make with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the future. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and the Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or otherwise.