CAMBRIDGE, Mass. / Feb 06, 2023 / Business Wire / Scholar Rock (NASDAQ: SRRK), a Phase 3 clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the treatment of serious diseases in which protein growth factors play a fundamental role, today announced the appointment of Tracey M. Sacco as Chief Commercial Officer. Ms. Sacco brings extensive biopharmaceutical industry experience, including product launch and global commercial strategy. At Scholar Rock, she will build and lead all commercial functions, including sales, marketing, market access, and commercial operations. Her first priority will be preparing the company for the potential commercial launch of apitegromab, the company’s Phase 3 investigational candidate for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

“Our ongoing Phase 3 SAPPHIRE trial is our top priority, and we are committed to the patients who we believe may benefit from apitegromab. To this end, we are thrilled to welcome Tracey to Scholar Rock’s executive team and leverage her depth of commercial experience as the company’s Chief Commercial Officer,” said Dr. Jay Backstrom, M.D., M.P.H., President & Chief Executive Officer of Scholar Rock. “Tracey is an exceptional leader with a proven track record of building commercial organizations and launching new products in the rare disease area. She brings capabilities and deep expertise that will complement our current activities and help us maximize the significant opportunity before us.”

“Scholar Rock has developed a differentiated and a validated scientific approach to addressing devastating illnesses and has the potential to bring truly practice-changing medicines to patients. I’m thrilled to be joining the Scholar Rock team at a time with so much positive momentum and look forward to contributing to the success of the apitegromab program by preparing for the company’s first commercial launch,” said Ms. Sacco.

Ms. Sacco joins Scholar Rock with nearly two decades in the biopharmaceutical industry. Much of her career has focused on rare disease, where she has worked on programs from early-stage development through launch. Most recently, Ms. Sacco worked at The Nemetz Group, where she served as a strategic partner to biopharmaceutical companies on commercialization and corporate strategy. Previously, she held positions of increasing responsibility at Acceleron Pharma, most recently serving as Senior Vice President, Global Strategic Marketing. She was a key architect of the U.S. launch of REBLOZYL^® for myelodysplastic syndromes and beta-thalassemia. Prior to Acceleron, Ms. Sacco held roles in commercial strategy and business development at Sanofi (formerly Genzyme), Oscient Pharmaceuticals, and Pfizer.

Ms. Sacco holds an M.B.A. from NYU Stern School of Business and a B.A. in Economics and Sociology from Boston College. She is a member of the Life Science Cares Board of Advisors.

About Scholar Rock

Scholar Rock is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of innovative medicines for the treatment of serious diseases in which signaling by protein growth factors plays a fundamental role. Scholar Rock is creating a pipeline of novel product candidates with the potential to transform the lives of patients suffering from a wide range of serious diseases, including neuromuscular disorders, cancer, and fibrosis. Scholar Rock’s approach to targeting the molecular mechanisms of growth factor activation enabled it to develop a proprietary platform for the discovery and development of monoclonal antibodies that locally and selectively target these signaling proteins at the cellular level. By developing product candidates that act in the disease microenvironment, the Company intends to avoid the historical challenges associated with inhibiting growth factors for therapeutic effect. Scholar Rock believes its focus on biologically validated growth factors may facilitate a more efficient development path. For more information, please visit www.ScholarRock.com or follow Scholar Rock on Twitter (@ScholarRock) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/scholar-rock/).

Availability of Other Information About Scholar Rock

Investors and others should note that we communicate with our investors and the public using our company website www.scholarrock.com, including, but not limited to, company disclosures, investor presentations and FAQs, Securities and Exchange Commission filings, press releases, public conference call transcripts and webcast transcripts, as well as on Twitter and LinkedIn. The information that we post on our website or on Twitter or LinkedIn could be deemed to be material information. As a result, we encourage investors, the media and others interested to review the information that we post there on a regular basis. The contents of our website or social media shall not be deemed incorporated by reference in any filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

Scholar Rock^® is a registered trademark of Scholar Rock, Inc.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements regarding Scholar Rock’s future expectations, plans and prospects, including without limitation, Scholar Rock’s expectations regarding its growth, strategy, progress and timing of its clinical trials for apitegromab, SRK-181, and other product candidates and indication selection and development timing, the ability of any individual to affect the performance of the company, the ability of any product candidate to perform in humans in a manner consistent with earlier nonclinical, preclinical or clinical trial data, and the potential of its product candidates and proprietary platform. The use of words such as “may,” “might,” “could,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “project,” “intend,” “future,” “potential,” or “continue,” and other similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. All such forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations of future events and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, that preclinical and clinical data, including the results from the Phase 2 clinical trial of apitegromab, or Part A of the Phase 1 clinical trial of SRK-181, are not predictive of, may be inconsistent with, or more favorable than, data generated from future clinical trials of the same product candidate, including, without limitation, the Phase 3 clinical trial of apitegromab in SMA or Part B of the Phase 1 clinical trial of SRK-181, Scholar Rock’s ability to provide the financial support, resources and expertise necessary to identify and develop product candidates on the expected timeline, the data generated from Scholar Rock’s nonclinical and preclinical studies and clinical trials, information provided or decisions made by regulatory authorities, competition from third parties that are developing products for similar uses, Scholar Rock’s ability to obtain, maintain and protect its intellectual property, Scholar Rock’s dependence on third parties for development and manufacture of product candidates including, without limitation, to supply any clinical trials, Scholar Rock’s ability to manage expenses and to obtain additional funding when needed to support its business activities and establish and maintain strategic business alliances and new business initiatives, and the impacts of public health pandemics such as COVID-19 on business operations and expectations, as well as those risks more fully discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in Scholar Rock’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2022, as well as discussions of potential risks, uncertainties, and other important factors in Scholar Rock’s subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements represent Scholar Rock’s views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. All information in this press release is as of the date of the release, and Scholar Rock undertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law.