CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Warp Drive Bio, a life sciences company developing therapeutics that exploit the molecules and mechanisms of nature, announced today that Rachel K. King will join the company’s board of directors. Ms. King brings to Warp Drive Bio over 25 years of biotechnology leadership experience.

“Rachel has led the growth of GlycoMimetics from inception to a publicly-traded company with products in late-stage clinical development,” said Laurence Reid, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Warp Drive Bio. “Her business expertise and company-building experience will be invaluable to the evolution of Warp Drive Bio. We are thrilled to have such a well-regarded leader in the biotechnology field join our team.”

Ms. King has spent the last 13 years serving as chief executive officer for GlycoMimetics, Inc., a clinical-stage hematology/oncology-focused company she co-founded. Prior to that, she spent two years at New Enterprise Associates where she served as an entrepreneur-in-residence. Ms. King also held positions at Novartis Corporation, where she served terms as both the vice president of government relations and senior vice president of corporate communications and government relations. Previously, she held positions of increasing responsibility with Genetic Therapy Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Novartis, including as the company’s chief executive officer. Earlier in her career, she worked for the ALZA Corporation, a pharmaceutical and medical systems company acquired by Johnson and Johnson. Ms. King served as chair of the Maryland Life Sciences advisory board under Governor Martin O’Malley and is the immediate past board chair of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO). She holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

“By exploiting the untapped power of medicines that exist in nature, Warp Drive Bio is a pioneer in developing natural products that show enormous potential for patients,” said Ms. King. “The passionate team at Warp Drive Bio is breaking new ground in drug development, and I look forward to working with them as they continue to advance these important new medicines in areas of unmet medical need.”

About Warp Drive Bio

Warp Drive Bio is exploiting the molecules and mechanisms of nature to create transformative medicines. The company operates on the core principle that nature is the world’s most powerful inventor of new drugs, unconstrained by the mechanistic and synthetic limitations of trastional medicinal chemistry. Warp Drive Bio is deploying its proprietary Genominc Mining and SMART (Small Molecule Assisted Receptor Targeting) platforms to discover novel medicines that have the potential to make a significant difference in patients’ lives. The company was launched in 2012 through a strategic partnership with Sanofi and with financing from Third Rock Ventures and Greylock Partners. For more information, please visit www.warpdrivebio.com.