CymaBay Appoints Thomas Wiggans and Janet Dorling to Board of Directors

NEWARK, Calif., April 05, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CymaBay Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBAY), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies for liver and other chronic diseases with high unmet need, today announced the appointment of biopharma veteran Thomas Wiggans and commercial leader Janet Dorling to its Board of Directors. Concurrently with these appointments, CymaBay announced that Paul F. Truex has resigned from the Board of Directors effective as of April 1, 2021 to focus on his new role as Chief Executive Officer of LQT Therapeutics.

“We are truly excited to be welcoming Tom and Janet to the Board. Tom’s experience leading biopharma companies, such as Dermira, Peplin and Connetics, through development to commercialization makes him a perfect addition to guide us through our next phase of development and commercialization,” said Dr. Robert Wills, CymaBay’s Chairman of the Board. “Janet was formerly our Chief Commercial Officer and is now the Senior Vice President, Global Commercial Product Strategy at Gilead. Over the course of her career at Gilead, CymaBay, Achaogen, Roche and Genentech she has extensive senior executive experience in global marketing, commercialization and strategic planning across multinational biopharmaceutical companies, something that will be critical to the company as it moves forward. On behalf of the entire Board I also want to extend our gratitude to Paul for his work over the past five years at CymaBay. His advice and counsel have been key in guiding the Company through critical periods of strategic transition and we wish him success in his new role.”

“I’m delighted to be working with the CymaBay Board at such an exciting time for the company,” said Mr. Wiggans. “I look forward to partnering with the executive team and the Board as we prepare the company for its next stage of transition and growth in bringing novel treatments to patients.”

“I’ve had an opportunity to see first hand the potential that seladelpar has to significantly advance patient care in PBC,” said Ms. Dorling. “I’m excited to once again play a role in the important work that lies ahead for the company.”

“We are incredibly fortunate to be able to add such extensive experience and critical skill sets to our Board as we move through key inflection points at CymaBay including advancing our lead program, seladelpar, from the final stages of clinical development to commercialization and expanding our pipeline,” added President and Chief Executive Officer, Sujal Shah. “Tom has had a distinguished career as an operator and director across numerous biopharma companies. In addition to her leadership as a commercial executive at two of the most successful biotech companies in the world, Janet has unique insight into the potential opportunity seladelpar has to significantly advance patient care in PBC having previously served as Chief Commercial Officer at CymaBay. I’m confident that both will have an immediate impact on our mission to bring novel treatments to patients with chronic inflammatory diseases.”