Solstice Biologics, a US company focused on the targeting and delivery of nucleic acid therapeutics, says Lou Tartaglia has joined the company as President and Chief Executive. In addition, John Borgeson has been appointed as Chief Financial Officer.
The expansion of the leadership team follows the achievement of internal technology milestones that further enable RNA molecules to cross membranes of multiple cell types, a problem that has been a bottleneck in delivering on the therapeutic potential of RNA interference (RNAi) and microRNA outside the liver.
Solstice, founded in 2012, is funded by venBio and Aeris Capital.
Prior to joining Solstice, Tartaglia was a Partner at Third Rock Ventures. Before this, he was SVP and a General Manager of GeneLogic, and prior to that, he was Vice President of New Ventures at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, and also Vice President of Metabolic Diseases. He also worked at Genentech on tumour necrosis factor receptors.
Borgeson joins as Chief Financial Officer after serving as a financial advisor to Solstice since its inception. He spent 20 years at Pfizer, most recently as Vice President, Finance for the company's Biotherapeutic and Bioinnovation Centre.
Since leaving Pfizer in 2010, Borgeson has helped oversee finance for a variety of private companies, including venBio portfolio companies Labrys Biologics (recently acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals) and Heart Metabolics.
