Awad, who has been serving as a consultant with Synlogic since October 2018, will join the company full-time in mid-December and will be responsible for upstream and downstream process development and manufacturing of Synlogic's Synthetic Biotic medicines.
Prior to joining Synlogic he served as senior vice president of operations and CMC and head of manufacturing for Abpro Therapeutics, a private company focused on the development of novel bi-specific antibodies for oncology.
Earlier, Awad held positions of increasing responsibility over a ten-year period at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals.
As head of manufacturing and process sciences, he transitioned to Ipsen Bioscience to integrate and lead the commercial site for production of Onyvide, which Ipsen S.A. acquired from Merrimack.
Synlogic has entered into a forty-four-month agreement with the Azzur Group, a MA-based engineering and consulting group specialising in GMP manufacturing solutions.
Under the agreement, Synlogic will lease clean-room space in Azzur's Waltham facility that Synlogic staff will use for manufacturing and formulation of GMP material for Synlogic's early clinical studies of its first immuno-oncology programme, intratumorally administered SYNB1891, and mid-stage studies of solid formulations of its orally administered Synthetic Biotic medicines.
In addition to the use of Azzur's facility, as part of the agreement, Azzur will provide personnel and other resources as needed to support activities, including project management, sampling, material receipt/release, inventory control, training and general consulting for the duration of Synlogic's use of the facility.
Synlogic is pioneering the development of a novel class of living medicines, Synthetic Biotic medicines, based on its proprietary drug development platform. Synlogic leverages the tools and principles of synthetic biology to genetically engineer beneficial microbes to perform or deliver critical functions missing or damaged due to disease.
Synthetic Biotic medicines are designed to act locally and have a systemic effect to address disease in patients.
Synlogic's two lead programs, SYNB1020 and SYNB1618, are orally administered and target hyperammonemia as a result of liver damage or genetic disease, and phenylketonuria, respectively. Synlogic is also developing SYNB1891 as an intratumorally administered Synthetic Biotic medicine for the treatment of cancer.
In addition, the company is leveraging the broad potential of its platform to create additional Synthetic Biotic medicines for the treatment of liver disease, as well as inflammatory and immune disorders including Synlogic's collaboration with AbbVie to develop Synthetic Biotic-based treatments for inflammatory bowel disease.
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