SpyBiotech Appoints Keith Dewedoff as new Chief Financial Officer

OXFORD, England and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- SpyBiotech, a biotechnology company with a novel vaccine platform technology that can target infectious diseases, cancer, and chronic diseases, has appointed Keith Dewedoff as Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

Keith brings more than 20 years of experience in the life science industry to SpyBiotech, ranging from biotech venture-backed start-ups to commercial publicly traded companies. Keith also serves as a CFO and Advisor for Danforth Advisors, an advisory firm focused on providing financial strategy to life science organizations. He previously served as CFO of Ceptur Therapeutics and more than 10 other privately held and public companies at various life cycle stages. His responsibilities included managing finance, accounting, corporate development, and other corporate operational functions. Prior to Danforth, Keith was CFO of Kaizen Bioscience where he is still active on the board as Chair and also serves as a venture partner at an early-stage incubator focused on infectious diseases. Keith earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Northeastern University and studied graduate work at Oxford University. 

"I am proud to join the SpyBiotech team as the company continues to expand," said Keith Dewedoff. "Given the recently announced research collaboration with the University of Oxford and SpyBiotech's Phase I trial of its HCMV vaccine, this is a really exciting time to join the company."

"Keith is an excellent addition to our leadership team. His depth of expertise in financial strategy and corporate development will serve SpyBiotech well as we continue to build our organization and progress our scientific pipeline," said Mark Leuchtenberger, Chief Executive Officer. "We look forward to this new chapter of advancement with our lead candidate in the clinic and our EBV-focused collaboration with the University of Oxford."

About SpyBiotech

SpyBiotech is a clinical stage biotechnology company with novel vaccine platform technologies to target infectious diseases, cancer and chronic diseases. The company was spun out of the University of Oxford in 2017 by Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE) and Google Ventures (GV). The company raised $32.5 million in a Series A equity financing in 2021. Based on science developed at the University of Oxford, SpyBiotech's novel vaccine platform is based on a proprietary protein "superglue" technology which binds antigens to vaccine delivery platforms in a way which minimizes delivery risk and enhances immunogenicity and efficacy. This makes it ideal for use against infectious diseases in challenging environments, such as in the developing world, but also with potential application in non-infectious disease settings such as cancer. SpyBiotech has the exclusive rights from the University of Oxford to apply, commercialize and sub-license the SpyTag/SpyCatcher and related "superglue" technologies in vaccine development.