board of directors
Praveen Tipirneni, MD, MBA

Praveen Tipirneni, MD, MBA currently serves as President and Chief Executive Officer, Morphic Therapeutic.

Previously, he was Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Global Strategy at Cubist Pharmaceuticals from 2002 until the ~$10 billion acquisition by Merck in 2015. In his time at Cubist, he has served in the Clinical group working on the Cubicin NDA (skin and skin structure infections) and sNDA (Staph. Bacteremia and Endocarditis) teams. He has been head of Business Development since January 2006. Prior to joining Cubist, Dr. Tipirneni worked at Sun Microsystems in Corporate Strategy, Covad Communications in Corporate Strategy, and Deltagen, in Business Development and also served time as 1st Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Dr. Tipirneni received a bachelor’s degree from MIT in Mechanical Engineering, an M.D. from McGill University. After completing his post-graduate residency in Internal Medicine at University of Illinois, Chicago, he received his MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business in healthcare finance.

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Integrin Partnership: Janssen

Morphic entered a research partnership with Janssen in 2019 to discover inhibitors of undisclosed integrin targets. In 2021, this partnership was expanded to include an antibody activator of an integrin target, extending the application of Morphic’s knowledge of integrin biology into modalities beyond small molecules. The antibody activator program is the focus of our collaboration with Janssen today.

Undisclosed Targets

Morphic is leveraging the MInT Platform to discover therapeutically relevant small molecule inhibitors of targets across the integrin family to treat autoimmune diseases, cancer and fibrotic diseases.

Undisclosed Target for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Morphic is deploying the MInT Platform to create small molecule inhibitors of an undisclosed integrin target for evaluation as a potential treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). PAH is a devastating, usually fatal disease characterized by elevated mean pressures in the pulmonary artery and associated with lung and heart dysfunction. Morphic’s PAH program is in preclinical development.

αvβ8

Morphic is developing small molecule inhibitors of the integrin αvβ8 through a combination immuno-oncology approach for the treatment of solid tumors as well as potential additional indications. αvβ8 is known to activate selective isoforms of TGF-β and Morphic has demonstrated that αvβ8 inhibition can potentiate immune checkpoint blockade and potentially drive responses in checkpoint refractory tumors. Morphic’s αvβ8 inhibitors are in preclinical development.

Next Gen α4β7 Inhibitors

Morphic is developing a family of next generation α4β7 small molecule inhibitors with enhanced attributes using the MInT Platform. These candidates have distinct chemical properties from our first-generation inhibitors with differentiated selectivity, potency, and pharmacokinetic profiles. Morphic’s next generation α4β7 inhibitors are currently in preclinical development.