Replimune Strengthens Executive Team with the Appointment of Jean Franchi as Chief Financial Officer

WOBURN, Mass., Dec. 09, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Replimune Group Inc. (Nasdaq: REPL), a biotechnology company developing oncolytic immuno-gene therapies derived from its Immulytic platform, today announced the expansion of its executive team with the appointment of Jean M. Franchi as Chief Financial Officer. Ms. Franchi will lead the Company’s financial strategy as Replimune continues to advance its pipeline of next-generation oncolytic immuno-gene therapies for the treatment of cancer.

“We are pleased to welcome Jean to the Replimune team,” said Robert Coffin, Ph.D., President and CEO of Replimune. “Jean brings a wealth of experience to Replimune as an operational and strategic financial leader in pre-commercial and global commercial operating companies. Her experience helping to scale Genzyme will be instrumental as Replimune moves through late-stage development and into pre-commercialization planning.”
                                           
“I believe Replimune is on the cusp of major value inflection points projected in 2020,” commented Ms. Franchi. “The advancement of RP1 into registration-directed development and RP2 into the clinic with RP3 expected to be not far behind makes it an incredibly exciting time for Replimune. I look forward to joining the leadership team to help manage the transformational growth required to fully leverage Replimune’s assets.”

Ms. Franchi brings to Replimune over 30 years of experience in the biotechnology and life sciences industry where she has held senior financial management roles at several companies of varying sizes and stages in both the U.S. and international markets. Ms. Franchi spent 16 years at Genzyme advancing within the organization during its most rapid phase of growth. Ms. Franchi spent her final eight years at Genzyme as the Senior Vice President of Finance for all nine business units and then Senior Vice President of Corporate Finance working alongside the Chief Financial Officer and playing an important role in the approximately $20.1 billion sale to Sanofi. Subsequent to Genzyme, Ms. Franchi has served as Chief Financial Officer at a number of other public and private biotechnology and life sciences companies including Dimension Therapeutics and Good Start Genetics. Most recently, Ms. Franchi served as the Chief Financial Officer for Merrimack Pharmaceuticals where she streamlined the financial operations while strengthening the balance sheet through the retirement of debt, sale of assets and navigating the review of strategic alternatives. Ms. Franchi holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Hofstra University.