Monday, June 29, 2009

Kenneth Bair heads R&D at Forma Therapeutics

By Mass High Tech staff

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Forma Therapeutics Inc., a Cambridge oncology treatment startup, has appointed Kenneth Bair as senior vice president and head of research and development.

Bair joins Forma having worked previously in the same role at EntreMed Inc.; as senior vice president and head of biopharmaceuticals research at Chiron Corp.; and as vice president, discovery oncology, at Pharmacia Corp.

Bair graduated from Brandeis University with a doctorate degree in organic chemistry, and he served as a postdoctoral fellow at MIT also.

Forma relies on an integrated transformative biology and chemistry-based approach to develop its drugs. It uses a cell-based screening platform to permit the screening of discrete targets in cells. Headquartered in Cambridge, Forma has research operations in Connecticut, Singapore and Beijing.

In March, the company announced that it was partnering with Singapore to conduct research and development on anti-cancer drugs.

Earlier in 2009, Forma entered a three-year collaboration agreement with Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc. in which Cubist will develop antibacterial compounds discovered by Forma. The deal calls for Forma to receive $14 million in upfront payments, delivery and research funding and equity.