Erasca, Inc. announced that Shannon R. Morris, M.D., Ph.D., previously senior vice president of clinical development of Erasca, has been promoted to chief medical officer, and Chandra D. Lovejoy, M.S., previously senior vice president of regulatory affairs of Erasca, has been promoted to chief regulatory affairs officer, effective immediately. Dr. Morris succeeds Wei Lin, M.D., who is stepping down to pursue other opportunities. Dr. Morris brings over 20 years of experience in the life sciences industry with a focus in oncology.

She joined Erasca from Istari Oncology, where she was vice president, head of clinical development, and a member of the executive committee. Prior to joining Istari, she was vice president of clinical development at G1 Therapeutics where she led the development of Cosela(TM), achieving breakthrough therapy designation as well as a successful new drug application (NDA) submission. As a senior director at MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, she supported the successful biologics license application (BLA) for Imfinzi(R) and led the development of multiple early phase immuno-oncology assets.

At GlaxoSmithKline, she held roles of increasing responsibility where her efforts focused on the early phase development of small molecule inhibitors of AKT, PI3K, and MEK, including the approved MEK inhibitor Mekinist(R). During her time at GlaxoSmithKline and MedImmune, Dr. Morris maintained an adjunct appointment at the University of North Carolina where her practice focused on the clinical care of patients with breast and gastrointestinal cancers. Dr. Morris completed her internal medicine residency and oncology fellowship at the University of North Carolina, earned an M.D. and Ph.D. in molecular virology from Case Western Reserve University, and holds a B.S. in biological sciences from Stanford University.

M.S.Ms. Lovejoy is a regulatory affairs specialist with over 20 years of global drug development experience, ranging from pre-investigational new drug activities through NDA and marketing authorization application (MAA) submissions and post-approval. Her career has focused on oncology and has included drug/diagnostic development and novel trial designs and endpoints. She joined Erasca from G1 Therapeutics, where she was vice president of regulatory affairs and led health authority negotiations resulting in U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) breakthrough therapy designation and NDA approval for Cosela .

Ms. Lovejoy previously served as senior vice president, global regulatory affairs and head of quality at Sierra Oncology and vice president of global regulatory affairs at Endocyte. Earlier in her career, she held roles of increasing responsibility at Genentech, including as regulatory lead for Avastin(R), and previously was at Avi BioPharma. Ms. Lovejoy holds an M.S. in regulatory affairs from San Diego State University and a B.S. in organizational behavior from the University of San Francisco.