According to Steve Mahoney, President and CEO of Viridian, “He was very pleased to welcome Jennifer to Viridian to lead our legal team and join Viridian’s executive team ahead of an exciting set of milestones this year across our thyroid eye disease and anti-neonatal Fc receptor portfolios.” Jennifer will be a valuable addition to the team as we carry out our corporate initiatives because of her extensive experience and background in public biotech firms providing advice on a wide range of business and legal issues.
Most recently, Ms. Tousignant joined Viridian from Sana Biotechnology, where she held the position of Senior Vice President of Legal and oversaw the legal team in charge of quality control, regulatory affairs, business development, patents, intellectual property, corporate communications, investor relations, and litigation. She came to Sana from Xilio Therapeutics, where she oversaw all legal and compliance issues as Head of Legal. Jennifer was Chief Intellectual Property Counsel at TESARO, Inc. before joining Xilio. There, she established and oversaw the intellectual property department and played a significant role in the international launch teams of multiple products. She began her career at Genzyme Corporation, where she held increasingly responsible positions in legal and research. She earned a B.A. in Chemistry with Honors from the University of Virginia and a J.D., magna cum laude, from Suffolk University School of Law.
According to Ms. Tousignant, she was ecstatic to join Viridian during this moment of profound change. She is excited to collaborate closely with the team to develop and provide a portfolio of unique and maybe best-in-class medications for patients. She was thrilled to assist at this extremely exciting time for Viridian.
Additionally, Viridian disclosed that on February 12, 2024, the Board of Directors of the business authorized the issuance of non-qualified stock options to Ms. Tousignant, entitling her to buy up to 290,000 shares of the company’s common stock. Although the Inducement Grant was given outside of the company’s 2016 Equity Incentive Plan, it is still governed by its terms and conditions.
The exercise price per share of the Inducement Grant is set at the closing price of Viridian’s common stock on the Grant Date. The Inducement Grant is set to vest over a four-year period. Upon Ms. Tousignant’s continued employment with Viridian through the applicable vesting dates, 25% of the shares will vest on the one-year anniversary of her start date. The remaining shares will vest in 36 equal monthly installments after that.
Viridian is a biopharmaceutical business that specializes in designing and creating potentially best-in-class medications for people suffering from severe and uncommon illnesses. With its experience in both antibody engineering and discovery, Viridian is able to create novel therapeutic candidates for previously approved medication targets in well-known, marketable disease areas.
Several options are being advanced by Viridian in the clinic to treat individuals with thyroid eye disease (TED). To assess the safety and effectiveness of VRDN-001 in patients with both active and chronic TED, the business is carrying out two Phase 3 clinical trials (THRIVE and THRIVE-2) around the world. In order to treat TED, Viridian wants to promote VRDN-001 as the finest IV therapy and VRDN-003 as the first and best subcutaneous therapy.
Apart from the TED portfolio, Viridian is also developing a new portfolio of FcRn inhibitors for neonates, called VRDN-006 and VRDN-008, which may be used to treat a variety of autoimmune disorders.
