NeuBase Therapeutics Appoints New Chief Business and Strategy Officer

Dr. Motesharei has over 20 years of expertise in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, including business development, alliance management, licensing and transactions, and strategy.

FREMONT, CA: NeuBase Therapeutics, a biotechnology company advancing the genetic revolution with a new class of precision genetic therapeutics, announced Kia Motesharei, Ph.D., as Chief Business and Strategy Officer, starting May 24, 2021. Dr. Motesharei has over 20 years of expertise in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, including business development, alliance management, licensing and transactions, and strategy.

“Kia has successfully completed more than 100 deals, with particular expertise in scaling the output of platform biotechnology companies through partnerships to maximize shareholder value, with several drugs on market now as a direct result of his activities. Kia also has expertise in our programmatic areas including in neurology, oncology and rare diseases,” said Dietrich A. Stephan, Ph.D., Founder, CEO, and Chairman, NeuBase. “We are excited to welcome Kia to the NeuBase team, as we evaluate potential partnership opportunities and expand our therapeutic pipeline, leveraging the broad capabilities of our PATrOLTM platform for precision genetic medicines.”

Dr. Motesharei was most recently Senior Vice President, Business Development & Corporate Strategy at Akcea Therapeutics, a rare disease biopharmaceutical company in late-stage development and commercialization. He led and executed the regional partnership of Akcea’s marketed products Tegsedi and Waylivra with Sobi in Europe and the Middle East. Dr. Motesharei was previously the head of Global Licensing & Business Development, Neurology & Immunology (N&I) at EMD Serono, Merck KGaA’s biopharmaceutical division.

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“Genetic mutations are the fundamental drivers of all diseases, rare and common, so NeuBase’s ability to specifically modulate mutated DNA and RNA can unlock a whole new class of medicines for diseases that currently have few treatment options,” said Dr. Motesharei. “I look forward to utilizing partnership strategies to expand the breadth of what we have the potential to accomplish with this technology to benefit patients around the world.”

He was a key member of the N&I Franchise Leadership Team, which was in charge of executing the $1.8 billion franchise’s overall strategy, which included product and pipeline development, partnering, regulatory, commercial, and marketing choices. In addition, he oversaw the global licensing team, which was in charge of searching for, evaluating, and closing deals in the immunology, neurology, allergy, fertility, medical device, and global health businesses.

Dr. Motesharei was previously a member of Dyax Corporation’s management team and investor relations team, where he worked on developing and marketing innovative biotherapeutics to prevent hereditary angioedema. Additionally, he was in charge of business development, alliance management, and competitive intelligence for Dyax’s phage display platform and pipeline medicines such as Kalbitor and DX-2930 (now approved as Takhzyro), all of which contributed to Shire’s $6.5 billion acquisition. He formerly worked at Genfit Corporation, ActivX Biosciences, and Lion Bioscience, where he held several leadership positions.

He is now a member of the Ariana Pharma board of directors. Dr. Motesharei graduated from Colorado College with a B.A. in chemistry and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from UCLA. At The Scripps Research Institute, he finished his postdoctoral training as an NIH fellow.