Catalyst Biosciences Announces Major Leadership Changes

Howard Levy, M.B.B.Ch, Ph.D., M.M.M., Catalyst's chief medical officer, has announced his retirement and is a senior clinical advisor.

FREMONT, CA: Catalyst Biosciences, a research and clinical development biopharmaceutical company, recently announced it has promoted Grant Blouse, Ph.D., to chief scientific officer and Tom Knudsen, DVM, Ph.D., to senior vice president, corporate development. Howard Levy, M.B.B.Ch, Ph.D., M.M.M., Catalyst's chief medical officer, has announced his retirement and is a senior clinical advisor.

"First and foremost, on behalf of all our employees and the Board of Directors at Catalyst Biosciences, I want to thank Howard for his many years of dedicated service, and especially for his key insights into initiating and advancing our SQ hemophilia programs and congratulate him on his well-deserved retirement. Due to his vision, SQ MarzAA is currently in a Phase 3 registrational study and SQ DalcA has successfully completed a Phase 2 trial. We look forward to Howards continuing expert advice as he transitions to the role of senior clinical advisor," said Nassim Usman, Ph.D., President, and Chief Executive Officer, Catalyst.

Since January 2020, Dr. Grant Blouse has served as Catalyst's senior vice president of translational research and translational research since July 2018. Dr. Blouse formerly worked at Novo Nordisk A/S, haemophilia enzymology, as a principal scientist and project manager, where he directed early and late-stage hemophilia studies and oversaw the strategic evaluation of new treatment areas in the rare disease space. Dr. Blouse was previously a senior scientist at Catalyst, where he worked on developing Catalyst's hemophilia initiatives, including the design of MarzAA and DalcA.

Dr. Blouse has worked in the Department of Molecular Biology at Aarhus University, the Henry Ford Health Systems Division of Biochemical Research, and the Department of Pharmacology at Wayne State University School of Medicine. 

Dr. Blouse has authored numerous papers and holds numerous patents in the fields of protease biochemistry and hematology. Dr. Blouse graduated from the University of Delaware with a B.A. in Anthropology, Clemson University with an M.Sc. in Biochemistry, and Wayne State University School of Medicine with a Ph.D. in Pharmacology.

"I would like to thank Nassim and the entire Catalyst family for their collaboration and support over my years of service. I look forward to Catalyst continuing to advance MarzAA and DalcA so that patients can have an improved quality of life," said Dr. Levy.

Since January 2021, Dr. Tom Knudsen has served as Vice President, Corporate Development at Catalyst. He was previously vice president of translational research at Catalyst. Dr. Knudsen oversaw strategy consulting at Deloitte and biopharmaceuticals research at Novo Nordisk before joining Catalyst. Additionally, he had numerous line, portfolio, and project management leadership roles at Novo Nordisk during his tenure there. In partnership with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr. Knudsen received his DVM and Ph.D. in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Copenhagen.

Dr. Usman continued, "I am pleased to announce Grants promotion to chief scientific officer. During his tenure at Catalyst, he has been instrumental in building our protease engineering platform and our hemophilia and complement programs. Additionally, it is my pleasure to announce Toms promotion to senior vice president, corporate development," He concluded, "Toms knowledge and experience in science, finance and corporate strategy will support our corporate development efforts as the company grows its protease medicines business."