Renovacor Announces the Appointment of Kumar Dhanasekharan, Ph.D., as Senior Vice President of Technical Operations

“With Kumar’s appointment, we’ve added yet another innovative industry expert to Renovacor’s diverse and growing leadership team,” said Magdalene Cook, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Renovacor. “Kumar is an ideal fit for the company, as he has extensive experience building technical operations functions and overseeing CMC strategy for early-stage AAV gene therapy programs. His experience will be an invaluable asset as we advance towards REN-001’s anticipated IND filing in the middle of next year.”

Dr. Dhanasekharan added, “Renovacor is an exciting company with seasoned industry leaders and strong foundational science that demonstrates REN-001’s ability to improve cardiac function in multiple preclinical heart failure models. I look forward to joining my new colleagues as we work to advance REN-001 and the rest of the pipeline. Our complementary skill sets will serve us well in pursuit of our mission to address the unmet needs of patients with BAG3 associated diseases.”

Prior to joining Renovacor, Dr. Dhanasekharan served as Vice President of Technical Operations at SwanBio Therapeutics. While at SwanBio Therapeutics, Dr. Dhanasekharan oversaw process development, analytical and formulation development, external manufacturing, and supply operations for the company’s AAV gene therapy programs. In this role, Dr. Dhanasekharan devised and implemented a chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) strategy that led to the development of a scalable serum-free manufacturing platform and successful manufacturing to support an IND. Prior to SwanBio, Dr. Dhanasekharan was Executive Director and Head of Technical Development and Tech Transfer at Amicus Therapeutics, where he contributed to the design of an AAV gene therapy manufacturing facility and built a development organization and laboratory operations team of over 30 scientists, as well as a Director-level leadership team to advance the company’s biologics to Phase III and process validation and AAV gene therapy programs to Phase I/II. Dr. Dhanasekharan also previously served as Director and Head of Process and Analytical Development at Cook Pharmica (which has since been acquired by Catelant); Director/Principal, Process and Technology Development at Lonza (formerly Bend Research Inc.); and in roles of increasing responsibility at Sanofi Genzyme.

Dr. Dhanasekharan has a Ph.D. in food science (process engineering focus) from Rutgers University and a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai (Madras), India.

About Renovacor

Renovacor is a preclinical stage gene therapy company developing a pipeline of innovative and proprietary AAV-based gene therapies for BAG3 gene mutation-associated diseases in areas of high unmet medical need. Renovacor’s therapeutic focus is initially on cardiovascular disease, with a lead program in BAG3 mutation-associated dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). For more information, please visit www.renovacor.com. No part of Renovacor’s website is incorporated by reference into or otherwise deemed to be a part of this press release.

Forward-Looking Statements

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