Dyadic International Inc (NASDAQ:DYAI) has named cell therapy executive Patrick Lucy to its board of directors, the company announced Monday, effective January 8.
Lucy is currently president and COO of Lykan Bioscience, a privately-owned cell therapy contract manufacturing organization based in Massachusetts. Before that, he co-founded Pfenex Inc within The Dow Chemical Company in 2001. He led the commercial launch of the Pfenex platform in 2005 through the spin out of the business from Dow in 2009 and was a member of the team that successfully completed its IPO in 2014.
"We are pleased to welcome Mr Lucy as an additional independent director,” Dyadic chairman Michael Tarnok said in a statement. “Mr Lucy is an accomplished biotechnology industry executive with over 29 years of relevant experience. He is an ideal addition to Dyadic's team as we continue to drive our business strategy forward to build deeper relationships with our collaborators and to speed the adoption and commercialization of our C1 gene expression platform to help make healthcare more accessible and affordable to patients globally."
READ: Dyadic CEO tells FOX Business how firm’s C1 technology can help make 1B COVID-19 vaccines a month
"I have known Patrick for over two decades,” CEO Mark Emalfarb added. “His extensive experience in the development, adoption and commercialization of cell lines used in the biopharmaceutical industry will be extremely helpful in guiding our strategic scientific and commercialization efforts. We are very excited to have Patrick join Dyadic's board of directors."
As part of his role as an independent director, Lucy will serve as a member of the board's science and technology committee. The move increases the size of Dyadic’s board to seven members.
"I am very familiar with Dyadic and the development of their C1 expression system,” Lucy said. “I have also known two members of the board of directors who are members of the US National Academy of Engineering. I am confident that I can contribute to the successful commercialization of C1 and achieving the company's goal of reducing cost and improving access to a wide range of biologic vaccines and drugs."
Dyadic engages in the large-scale manufacture of low-cost enzymes and other proteins for markets in the United States and Europe.
It leverages its proprietary C1 expression system — a fungal expression technology for producing enzymes— to help bring biologic vaccines, therapeutic enzymes, proteins, biosimilars and drugs to market faster and at a lower cost.
Contact Andrew Kessel at [email protected]
Follow him on Twitter @andrew_kessel
