Nancy Simonian to Speak at St. James Men’s Club

WATERTOWN, Mass.—On Mon., Sept. 8, Nancy Simonian, M.D., the CEO of Syros Pharmaceuticals, Inc., will speak at the St. James Armenian Church Men’s Club Dinner Meeting on the “Long and Winding Road: Building Great Biotech Companies.”

Simonian is the founding CEO of Syros Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held life science company focused on recent breakthroughs in gene control to revolutionize the treatment of cancer and other diseases. Through her proprietary platform in mapping gene regulatory pathways in human disease tissue, novel approaches for treating disease are being pursued. Simonian has an established track record of value creation in biotechnology, most recently as chief medical officer at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and, previously, as vice president of Clinical Development at Biogen. Under her leadership at Millennium, VELCADE® became a mainstay of treatment for multiple myeloma, and a billion dollar commercial blockbuster. Simonian also built and advanced Millennium’s promising pipeline of clinical stage drugs for cancer and Entyvio for inflammatory bowel disease. At Biogen, she played a central role in developing and commercializing AVONEX®, and in developing TYSABRI®, Biogen’s blockbuster products for multiple sclerosis.

Nancy Simonian started her career as a member of the faculty at Harvard Medical School and neurology staff at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). She trained in neurology and internal medicine at MGH, received her M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, and graduated with a degree in biology from Princeton. She is a member of the board of directors of Seattle Genetics, Inc.

The social hour begins at 6:15 p.m., followed by a complete kheyma and losh kebab dinner at 7 p.m., for $14 per person. The dinner meeting will be held at the St. James Armenian Church, Charles Mosesian Cultural and Youth Center-Keljik Hall, at 465 Mount Auburn St., in Watertown, MA. The event is open to the public; ladies are welcome.