Nkarta Therapeutics Promotes Nadir Mahmood, Ph.D., to Chief Business Officer

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Sept. 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nkarta Therapeutics, a privately-held biopharmaceutical company developing engineered natural killer (NK) cell therapies to fight cancer, today announced the promotion of Nadir Mahmood, Ph.D., to the newly-created position of chief business officer. Dr. Mahmood, who previously was senior vice president, Corporate Development, joined Nkarta in May 2018 with over a decade of experience in corporate development, research and finance in the biopharmaceutical and financial industries.

“Nadir has been an instrumental leader within our organization,” said Paul Hastings, president and chief executive officer of Nkarta. “He’s played a critical role in our progress and advancement, including establishing collaborative agreements with our technology partners and contract research organizations, securing and expanding our facility for in-house manufacturing of our cell therapies and, most recently, in the successful closing of our $114 million Series B financing. I am delighted to announce his promotion to chief business officer and look forward to his continued contributions to our success.”

Prior to joining Nkarta, Dr. Mahmood headed corporate development at Second Genome where he was responsible for establishing strategy and partnerships across the company’s portfolio of programs and oversaw all intellectual property matters. Earlier in his career, he was staff scientist at Kythera Biopharmaceuticals (acquired by Allergan), overseeing preclinical research for the company’s lead molecule, Kybella^®. Dr. Mahmood has also worked in equity research at Goldman Sachs and consulted for early stage companies in the life sciences and clean energy sectors. He has a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin, a doctoral degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and completed postdoctoral research at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA.

About Nkarta

Nkarta Therapeutics was founded on the proprietary, robust and well characterized Natural Killer (NK) cell expansion technology pioneered by Dr. Dario Campana. The company is focused on leveraging the natural potent power of NK cells to identify and kill abnormal cells and recruit adaptive immune effectors to generate responses that are specific and durable. Nkarta is combining its NK expansion platform technology with proprietary cell engineering technologies to generate an abundant supply of NK cells, engineer enhanced NK cell recognition of tumor targets, and improve persistence for sustained activity in the body for the treatment of cancer. Nkarta’s goal is to develop off-the-shelf NK cell therapy product candidates to improve outcomes for patients. Founded in 2015, the company’s investors include Amgen Ventures, Deerfield Management, LSP, Logos Capital, NEA, Novo Holdings A/S, RA Capital Management, Samsara BioCapital and SR One. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.nkartatx.com.

Contacts:

Sylvia Wheeler
[email protected]

Alex Santos
[email protected]