20 December 2018 - - US-based biotechnology company Compass Therapeutics has appointed Yu Liu, M.D., Ph.D., MBA, as chief medical officer and Lynne Sullivan as chief financial officer, the company said.

Dr. Liu, who most recently served as vice president and head of early clinical development at Pfizer, will oversee Compass' development of a deep pipeline of immuno-oncology and autoimmune disease candidates.

The company's lead candidate, CTX-471, a fully human monoclonal antibody that induces remodeling of the tumor microenvironment and leads to immune-mediated destruction of solid tumors, is expected to enter the clinic in the first quarter of 2019.

More than 15 therapeutic candidates are advancing through preclinical development and the research team continues to generate an exciting array of novel candidates through the company's proprietary antibody development platform.

Sullivan, who most recently served as senior vice president, finance at Biogen, will lead financial planning and management at Compass at a time of significant growth for the company.

At Pfizer, Dr. Liu oversaw early clinical development of the company's pipeline candidates in internal medicine, rare disease and inflammation/immunology.

Prior to Pfizer, Dr. Liu led Biogen's early clinical development effort in rare disease, with an emphasis on cell and gene therapy.

Earlier, he held various leadership roles at Bristol-Myers Squibb, culminating in his position as vice president of the oncology business unit, based in Shanghai, China.

Previously Dr. Liu held positions at Essentialis Therapeutics and Amgen. Dr. Liu trained in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

At Biogen, Sullivan moved through positions of increasing responsibility during her more than 10-year tenure and was named senior vice president of finance in 2015. In that role, she led financial planning and analysis, corporate finance and tax functions for Biogen's global operations.

Prior to Biogen, Sullivan served as a vice president overseeing tax function for Merck KGaA's North American operations and was Serono's vice president, Tax, Americas and International for seven years. She was a tax partner in the Boston office of Arthur Andersen prior to joining Serono.

She currently serves as director and chair of the audit committee for both resTORbio and Solid Biosciences. Sullivan earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from Suffolk University and a master's in taxation from Bentley University. She is also a CPA in Massachusetts.

Compass Therapeutics currently has more than 15 antibody, antibody combination and bispecific programs advancing through preclinical development, targeting multiple pathways of significance for the immune system.

The company's offices and labs are based in Kendall Square in Cambridge, Mass. Compass currently has approximately 80 full-time employees.