Cidara Therapeutics Appoints Biotechnology Industry Veteran Christopher Kurtz As Executive Vice President of Technical Operations

Former head of commercial API manufacturing at Gilead Sciences will lead technical operations for development of Cidara’s antifungal and antiviral programs

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cidara Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: CDTX), a biotechnology company developing long-acting therapeutics designed to transform the standard of care for patients facing serious fungal or viral infections, today announced the appointment of Christopher (Chris) Kurtz as executive vice president of technical operations. Mr. Kurtz brings more than 26 years of experience in global manufacturing, engineering, supply chain, CMC development and program management for drugs and devices at various stages of development.

“We are pleased to welcome Chris to our leadership team at such a pivotal time for our antifungal and antiviral programs,” said Jeffrey Stein, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Cidara. “Chris’s leadership and deep manufacturing expertise, delivering both biologic and small molecule drugs to market, will be invaluable as we advance rezafungin, currently in pivotal Phase 3 trials, towards filing, and advance our antiviral conjugate (AVC) influenza program to IND filing.”

Prior to joining Cidara, Mr. Kurtz served as head of commercial API manufacturing at Gilead Sciences, where he and his team played an instrumental role in the recent launches of products such as Biktarvy and Veklury (remdesivir). He previously served as vice president, for drug device industrialization at AbbVie, where he led product scale-up and industrialization projects for drug-device combinations. Prior to that, Mr. Kurtz held a number of leadership positions where he managed the development, scale-up and commercialization of drugs, biologics, medical devices and combination products at various companies, including Monsanto, Nektar Therapeutics, Alza Corporation, Alexza and Novo Nordisk. He has successfully established supply capabilities and navigated products from late-stage development through approval, launch and sustained commercialization. Mr. Kurtz holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Colorado and is a graduate of the Westinghouse S3G Nuclear Engineering Program. He is also a proud veteran of the US Navy Submarine Force.