Stoke Therapeutics (NASDAQ: STOK) appointed Bo Cumbo to its board of directors, the Bedford, Mass.-based biopharma company announced, as long-serving director Edward Kaye retired from the role.
Kaye, M.D., served on Stoke’s board starting in 2017 and also led the company as chief executive officer until March 2025. He will continue to advise the board through the transition.
Cumbo brings more than 30 years of biopharmaceutical industry experience. Since 2022 he has served as president, CEO and director of Solid Biosciences. He was previously founding CEO of AavantiBio and held commercial leadership roles at Sarepta Therapeutics, including chief commercial officer from 2013 to 2020. Earlier in his career he held positions at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Gilead Sciences, GlaxoSmithKline and UCB Pharma. Cumbo currently serves on the boards of Vor Bio and Climb Bio.
The leadership change comes as Stoke advances its lead asset, zorevunersen, an investigational antisense oligonucleotide for Dravet syndrome. The company anticipates potential FDA approval for the therapy in early 2028. Zorevunersen holds orphan drug designation from both the FDA and the European Medicines Agency, as well as Breakthrough Therapy Designation from the FDA for Dravet syndrome patients with confirmed mutations not associated with gain-of-function in the SCN1A gene.
Stoke has a strategic collaboration with Biogen (NASDAQ: BIIB) to develop and commercialize zorevunersen for Dravet syndrome. Stoke retains exclusive rights in the United States, Canada and Mexico, while Biogen holds exclusive rest-of-world commercialization rights.
Dravet syndrome is a severe developmental and epileptic encephalopathy marked by recurrent seizures and significant cognitive and behavioral impairments. Stoke estimates that up to 38,000 people are living with the disease across the U.S., UK, EU-4 and Japan.
