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SAGE Therapeutics Appoints Howard H. Pien to the Company's Board of Directors
[April 01, 2014]

SAGE Therapeutics Appoints Howard H. Pien to the Company's Board of Directors


CAMBRIDGE, Mass. --(Business Wire)--

SAGE Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company developing novel medicines to treat life-threatening, rare central nervous system (CNS) disorders, today announced the appointment of Howard H. Pien to the company's board of directors.

"Howard is a seasoned industry leader with deep biopharmaceutical expertise, especially in guiding companies as they expand and evolve from research and development to clinical stage," said Jeff Jonas, M.D., chief executive officer of SAGE Therapeutics. "We are pleased to welcome him to the SAGE team and believe he will be an invaluable asset as we advance our clinical and preclinical programs in orphan and acute CNS disorders, including status epilepticus."

Mr. Pien has been a chairman of Vanda Pharmaceuticals, a CNS development company, and lead independent director of ViroPharma, Inc., an orphan disease company. Additionally, he currently sits on the board of directors of Immunogen, Inc. and Juno Therapeutics, and is also an advisor to the life sciences practice of Warburg Pincus (News - Alert). He is the former chief exective officer and chairman of Medarex, Inc., where he served for two years prior to the company's acquisition by Bristol-Myers Squibb Company in 2009. While at Medarex, Mr. Pien shepherded the evolution of the company from a technology platform enterprise to a promising developer of oncology and immunology product candidates. Prior to Medarex, he served as president and chief executive officer of Chiron Corporation from 2003 until its acquisition by Novartis in 2006. Mr. Pien held an 11-year tenure at GlaxoSmithKline and its predecessor, SmithKline Beecham, most recently serving as president of GlaxoSmithKline International. Earlier in his career, Mr. Pien held roles of increasing responsibility at Abbott Laboratories and at Merck & Co.



"SAGE's targeted and differentiated approach to drug identification is compelling and has shown promise in developing treatments for critical and orphan CNS diseases," said Mr. Pien. "I am privileged to join the very talented SAGE team as the company works to discover, develop and deliver important new medicines to patients in need."

About SAGE Therapeutics


SAGE Therapeutics is a neuroscience-focused company developing medicines to treat life-threatening, rare CNS disorders. SAGE's lead program, SAGE-547, is in clinical development for super-refractory status epilepticus (SRSE) and is the first of many compounds the company is developing in its portfolio of potential seizure medicines. SAGE's robust chemistry platform has generated multiple new compounds that target the GABAA and NMDA receptors, which have demonstrated preclinical activity. SAGE Therapeutics is a private company launched in 2010 by an experienced team of R&D leaders, CNS experts and investors. For more information, please visit www.sagerx.com.


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