Turnstone Biologics Announces Executive Leadership Appointments

 Additions of Venkat Ramanan, Ph.D., as Chief Financial Officer and P. Joseph Campisi Jr., J.D., M.B.A., as General Counsel, serve to strengthen the financial, legal and business operations within the Company

Turnstone Biologics Corp., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (“TIL”) therapy and viral immunotherapy designed to treat and cure solid tumors, today announced the appointments of Venkat Ramanan, Ph.D., as Chief Financial Officer, and P. Joseph Campisi Jr., J.D., M.B.A., as General Counsel. The appointments support continued growth as Turnstone advances its pipeline of innovative cancer medicines.

“With the additions of Venkat and Joseph to Turnstone, we have further strengthened our leadership team at an important time for Turnstone,” said Sammy Farah, Ph.D., M.B.A., President and Chief Executive Officer, Turnstone. “Venkat brings a proven track record of establishing finance infrastructure, scaling operations and providing strategic financial perspective to global biopharmaceutical companies. Joseph joins us with an exceptional combination of experience in corporate, commercial and strategic transactions in the life sciences industry. We believe the combined talents of such dynamic industry leaders can help us to realize our mission of delivering transformative medicines to patients.”

Dr. Ramanan brings more than 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. He was most recently at Seagen where, in his role as Senior Vice President of Finance, he led the finance function through a transformational period as the company launched several products, expanded its global footprint and executed multiple strategic transactions. Prior to Seagen, Dr. Ramanan worked in positions of increasing responsibility in finance, supply chain planning and commercial operations at Gilead Sciences and Amgen. Dr. Ramanan began his career in the biopharmaceutical industry as a consultant with ZS Associates. He obtained his Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics from The Ohio State University.

“I am thrilled to be joining Turnstone and believe the Company’s robust pipeline of innovative medicines have the potential to bring a shift in the treatment of cancer,” said Dr. Ramanan. “I look forward to applying my knowledge and experience in finance and operations to help drive value as we work toward addressing the critical unmet medical need for durable and effective therapies for patients with solid tumors.”

Mr. Campisi, a seasoned legal executive, brings to Turnstone more than 30 years of experience in mergers and acquisitions, collaborations and securities offerings and corporate governance matters, with the majority of his career spent in the life sciences industry. He joins Turnstone from Scorpion Therapeutics where he was Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary. Prior to joining Scorpion Therapeutics, Mr. Campisi was Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he oversaw the Transactional Practice Group. He spent the early part of his career as a partner of the law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. Mr. Campisi obtained a Juris Doctor with distinction from Hofstra University School of Law, a Master of Business Administration in finance, and a Bachelor of Science in accounting from St. John’s University. He is admitted to the bar in both the State of New York and the State of California.

“Turnstone’s TIL and viral immunotherapy platforms hold great curative potential and I am eager to support my colleagues in their efforts to make these new therapies available to cancer patients. I am particularly excited about working with such a highly qualified team and leveraging my experience to contribute to Turnstone’s further growth and development,” said Mr. Campisi.

About Turnstone Biologics

Turnstone Biologics Corp., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, is developing new medicines to treat and cure solid tumors by pioneering differentiated approaches with two clinically validated technologies, tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (“TIL”) therapy and viral immunotherapy. Turnstone’s innovative TIL therapy is designed to extend the efficacy of TILs to multiple solid tumor indications by selecting and manufacturing the most potent tumor-reactive T-cells (“Selected TILs”) for tumor eradication and represents the Company’s foundational therapeutic modality driving its cancer immunotherapy pipeline. Turnstone continues to advance its lead Selected TIL therapy candidate, TIDAL-01, and is developing additional strategies to further potentiate the clinical benefit of Selected TILs, including use in combination with their novel viral immunotherapy. Built on a proprietary vaccinia virus platform, Turnstone is evaluating its viral immunotherapy program, RIVAL-01/TAK-605, in an ongoing Phase 1/2a trial as part of a global collaboration with Takeda.

For more information, please visit www.turnstonebio.com, and follow Turnstone on LinkedIn.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220419005488/en/