WALTHAM, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: DCPH), a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing important new medicines to improve the lives of people with cancer, today announced that the Company’s Founder, Executive Vice President, and Chief Scientific Officer, Daniel L. Flynn, Ph.D., will retire effective September 5, 2023 and will transition to a role as Senior Advisor to the Company. Dashyant Dhanak, Ph.D., has been appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer effective September 5, 2023.
Dr. Dhanak brings over 30 years of experience in pharmaceutical research and development and joins Deciphera from Incyte Corporation where he was Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer.
“On behalf of all my colleagues, I want to thank Dan for his vision to found Deciphera two decades ago as a company dedicated to improving the lives of people with cancer. It has been an honor to work alongside such a trailblazing researcher whose innovations in drug discovery now benefit thousands of cancer patients around the world and have the potential to continue making an impact for years to come thanks to our rich clinical and pre-clinical pipeline developed from the research engine that Dan created,” said Steve Hoerter, President and Chief Executive Officer of Deciphera Pharmaceuticals. “We are excited to build on our track record of innovation in drug discovery with the announcement that Dash Dhanak is joining Deciphera as our new Chief Scientific Officer. In addition to broad experience in drug discovery and development, Dash is a proven leader with a track record of advancing innovative oncology agents to the clinic. I look forward to working with Dash to continue to build a strong pipeline of novel therapies at Deciphera.”
“I am unbelievably proud of Deciphera’s progress and accomplishments in the years since I founded the company. We have grown from a small research team into a fully-integrated biotechnology company with capabilities from research to international commercialization, anchored as always by a culture that seeks to drive innovation to help patients as our first priority. Together, we have improved the quality of life for many cancer patients around the world,” said Dr. Flynn. “I am confident that the Company’s discovery and early-stage programs are in excellent hands with Dash, and under his leadership, I know Deciphera will develop additional important new medicines for the treatment of cancer.”
“It’s an honor to continue Dan’s legacy of innovation. I’m thrilled to join Deciphera at this pivotal time as it prepares to become a company with multiple approved medicines,” said Dr. Dhanak. “As Deciphera continues to mature as a commercial company, we remain driven to innovate and to discover new medicines to help patients with cancer.”
Prior to Deciphera, Dr. Dhanak served as Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Vice President at Incyte Corporation. Before joining Incyte in 2018, Dr. Dhanak was Vice President and Head of Discovery Sciences at Janssen Research & Development, and previously spent 25 years at GlaxoSmithKline in positions of increasing responsibility across multiple disease areas, including his final role as Vice President and Head of the Cancer Epigenetics Discovery Performance Unit. Dr. Dhanak received a B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology and a Ph.D. from the University of London. He completed his postdoctoral research in Natural Product Synthesis at Northwestern University.
In addition, the Company announced today that Ron Squarer has been appointed Chairperson of the Board of Directors. Mr. Squarer has over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry and joined Deciphera as a Director in December 2019. Mr. Squarer served as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of Array BioPharma, Inc. from 2012 until its acquisition by Pfizer Inc. in August 2019 following the successful commercial launches of both Braftovi® and Mektovi®. James A. Bristol, Ph.D., who has served as either Chairperson or Co-Chairperson since 2007, will remain a Board member of Deciphera.
“I want to recognize Jim Bristol’s tremendous leadership as Chairperson of the Deciphera board for over 15 years. Jim’s deep industry expertise has been invaluable in guiding our research activities, scaling our organization, and transforming Deciphera into a leading commercial-stage oncology company. We thank him for his exceptional stewardship as Chairperson and look forward to his continued contributions as a member of the board,” said Mr. Hoerter.
About Deciphera Pharmaceuticals
Deciphera is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing important new medicines to improve the lives of people with cancer. We are leveraging our proprietary switch-control kinase inhibitor platform and deep expertise in kinase biology to develop a broad portfolio of innovative medicines. In addition to advancing multiple product candidates from our platform in clinical studies, QINLOCK® is Deciphera’s switch-control inhibitor for the treatment of fourth-line GIST. QINLOCK is approved in Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, Hong Kong, Israel, Macau, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. For more information, visit www.deciphera.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter (@Deciphera).
