SAN DIEGO, Dec. 12, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zentalis^® Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ZNTL), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing clinically differentiated small molecule therapeutics targeting fundamental biological pathways of cancers, today announced the appointment of Wendy Chang as Chief People Officer and Haibo Wang as Chief Business Officer.

"Zentalis is sharply focused on our goal of bringing azenosertib to patients with gynecological malignancies,” said Julie Eastland, Chief Executive Officer. “To support this goal, we are continuing to tune our leadership team and today announced the appointment of two talented leaders with a strong track record of successfully supporting organizations through transitional periods. I look forward to working with Wendy, Haibo, and the rest of the leadership team as we advance the development of azenosertib.”

Executive Biographies

Wendy Chang, Chief People Officer

Wendy is the Chief People Officer of Zentalis. She brings over two decades of biopharma experience, including senior roles in human resources and an extensive background in aligning talent with organizations’ overall vision and direction. She was previously Chief People Officer at Harpoon Therapeutics. Before Harpoon, she was VP, Head of People & Culture for IDbyDNA. Wendy previously served in roles of increasing responsibility at Gilead Sciences from 2003 to 2020, most recently as Vice President, Human Resources, and, earlier in her career, at Bio-Rad Laboratories. She received a B.S. in accounting and business/management from the University of California, Riverside, and completed the Global Fellow of Talent Management program at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. 

Haibo Wang, Chief Business Officer

Haibo is the Chief Business Officer of Zentalis. He brings over 15 years of biopharma business development, finance, and M&A transaction experience, having most recently served as Senior Vice President of Business Development at Harpoon Therapeutics. While at Harpoon, he played a pivotal role in managing the Company’s acquisition by Merck, which was completed in March 2024. Prior to Harpoon, he served as the Vice President of Business Development at Hummingbird Bioscience, where he was responsible for the company’s end-to-end business development activities. Prior to Hummingbird, Haibo was Director of Business Development at Amgen, where he played a major role in the Teneobio and Five Prime Therapeutics acquisitions, the oncology collaboration with BeiGene, and many clinical collaborations to advance Amgen’s oncology pipeline. He began his career as an M&A consultant at Deloitte, advising on transactions in healthcare and technology. Haibo holds an M.S. in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University, an MBA from Duke University, and a BBA from Tsinghua University.

About Zentalis Pharmaceuticals

Zentalis^® Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing clinically differentiated small molecule therapeutics targeting fundamental biological pathways of cancers. The Company’s lead product candidate, azenosertib (ZN-c3), is a potentially first-in-class and best-in-class WEE1 inhibitor for advanced solid tumors. Azenosertib is being evaluated as a monotherapy and in combination across multiple clinical trials and has broad franchise potential. In clinical trials, azenosertib has been well tolerated and has demonstrated anti-tumor activity as a single agent across multiple tumor types and in combination with several chemotherapy backbones. As part of its azenosertib clinical development program, the Company is exploring enrichment strategies targeting tumors of high genomic instability, such as Cyclin E1 positive tumors, homologous recombination deficient tumors and tumors with oncogenic driver mutations. The Company is also leveraging its extensive experience and capabilities across cancer biology and medicinal chemistry to advance its research on protein degraders. Zentalis has operations in San Diego.

For more information, please visit www.zentalis.com. Follow Zentalis on X/Twitter at @ZentalisP and on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/zentalis-pharmaceuticals.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our goal of bringing azenosertib to patients with gynecological malignancies; the potential of azenosertib; the potential for azenosertib to be first-in-class and best-in-class; the broad franchise potential of azenosertib; and our plans with respect to the development of product candidates, including azenosertib. The terms “advance,” “goal,” “look forward,” "plan," “potential,” “support,” “to be,” and “will” and similar references are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the following: our limited operating history, which may make it difficult to evaluate our current business and predict our future success and viability; we have and expect to continue to incur significant losses; our need for additional funding, which may not be available; our plans, including the costs thereof, of development of any diagnostic tools; our substantial dependence on the success of our lead product candidate, azenosertib; the outcome of preclinical testing and early trials may not be predictive of the success of later clinical trials; failure to identify additional product candidates and develop or commercialize marketable products; potential unforeseen events during clinical trials could cause delays or other adverse consequences; risks relating to the regulatory approval process or ongoing regulatory obligations; failure to obtain U.S. or international marketing approval; our product candidates may cause serious adverse side effects; inability to maintain our collaborations, or the failure of these collaborations; our reliance on third parties; effects of significant competition; the possibility of system failures or security breaches; risks relating to intellectual property; our ability to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel, and risks relating to management transitions; significant costs as a result of operating as a public company; and the other important factors discussed under the caption “Risk Factors” in our most recently filed periodic report on Form 10-K or 10-Q and subsequent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and our other filings with the SEC. Any such forward-looking statements represent management’s estimates as of the date of this press release. While we may elect to update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we disclaim any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause our views to change.

ZENTALIS^® and its associated logo are trademarks of Zentalis and/or its affiliates. All website addresses and other links in this press release are for information only and are not intended to be an active link or to incorporate any website or other information into this press release.

Contact:
Elizabeth Pingpank Hickin
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