Replimune Strengthens Executive Team with the Appointment of Jean Franchi as Chief Financial Officer

WOBURN, Mass., Dec. 09, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Replimune Group Inc. (Nasdaq: REPL), a biotechnology company developing oncolytic immuno-gene therapies derived from its Immulytic™ platform, today announced the expansion of its executive team with the appointment of Jean M. Franchi as Chief Financial Officer. Ms. Franchi will lead the Company’s financial strategy as Replimune continues to advance its pipeline of next-generation oncolytic immuno-gene therapies for the treatment of cancer.

“We are pleased to welcome Jean to the Replimune team,” said Robert Coffin, Ph.D., President and CEO of Replimune. “Jean brings a wealth of experience to Replimune as an operational and strategic financial leader in pre-commercial and global commercial operating companies. Her experience helping to scale Genzyme will be instrumental as Replimune moves through late-stage development and into pre-commercialization planning.”
                                           
“I believe Replimune is on the cusp of major value inflection points projected in 2020,” commented Ms. Franchi. “The advancement of RP1 into registration-directed development and RP2 into the clinic with RP3 expected to be not far behind makes it an incredibly exciting time for Replimune. I look forward to joining the leadership team to help manage the transformational growth required to fully leverage Replimune’s assets.”

Ms. Franchi brings to Replimune over 30 years of experience in the biotechnology and life sciences industry where she has held senior financial management roles at several companies of varying sizes and stages in both the U.S. and international markets. Ms. Franchi spent 16 years at Genzyme advancing within the organization during its most rapid phase of growth. Ms. Franchi spent her final eight years at Genzyme as the Senior Vice President of Finance for all nine business units and then Senior Vice President of Corporate Finance working alongside the Chief Financial Officer and playing an important role in the approximately $20.1 billion sale to Sanofi. Subsequent to Genzyme, Ms. Franchi has served as Chief Financial Officer at a number of other public and private biotechnology and life sciences companies including Dimension Therapeutics and Good Start Genetics. Most recently, Ms. Franchi served as the Chief Financial Officer for Merrimack Pharmaceuticals where she streamlined the financial operations while strengthening the balance sheet through the retirement of debt, sale of assets and navigating the review of strategic alternatives. Ms. Franchi holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Hofstra University.

About Replimune

Replimune Group Inc., headquartered in Woburn, MA, was founded in 2015 to develop the next generation of “oncolytic immune-gene therapies” for the treatment of cancer. Replimune is developing novel, proprietary therapeutics intended to improve the direct cancer-killing effects of selective virus replication and the potency of the immune response to the tumor antigens released. The Company’s Immulytic^™ platform is designed to maximize systemic immune activation, in particular to tumor neoantigens, through robust viral-mediated immunogenic tumor cell killing and the delivery of optimal combinations of immune-activating proteins to the tumor and draining lymph nodes. The approach is expected to be highly synergistic with immune checkpoint blockade and other approaches to cancer treatment. Replimune intends to progress these therapies rapidly through clinical development in combination with other immuno-oncology products with complementary mechanisms of action. For more information, please visit www.replimune.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including statements regarding our advancement of our clinical trials, our goals to develop and commercialize our product candidates, and other statements identified by words such as “could,” “expects,” “intends,” “may,” “plans,” “potential,” “should,” “will,” “would,” or similar expressions and the negatives of those terms. Forward-looking statements are not promises or guarantees of future performance, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, and which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in such forward-looking statements. These factors include risks related to our limited operating history, our ability to generate positive clinical trial results for our product candidates, the costs and timing of establishing, equipping, and operating our planned in-house manufacturing facility, the timing and scope of regulatory approvals, changes in laws and regulations to which we are subject, competitive pressures, our ability to identify additional product candidates, and other risks as may be detailed from time to time in our Annual Reports on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other reports we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Our actual results could differ materially from the results described in or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof, and, except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements.

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