Zentalis Pharmaceuticals Promotes Co-Founder Kevin Bunker, Ph.D. to Chief Scientific Officer

NEW YORK and SAN DIEGO, Sept. 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zentalis™ Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ZNTL), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing clinically differentiated small molecule therapeutics targeting fundamental biological pathways of cancers, today announced the promotion of co-founder Kevin Bunker, Ph.D., to Chief Scientific Officer. In this new role, Dr. Bunker will focus on leading Research and Development (R&D) in San Diego, advancing the preclinical pipeline and optimizing the Company’s Integrated Discovery Engine.

“We are extremely grateful for all of Kevin’s contributions across the Company in his service as COO,” said Kimberly Blackwell, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Zentalis. “Kevin is an outstanding scientist and leader at Zentalis, and the Company’s achievements to date are due in large part to his dedication and passion for discovering promising oncology drugs targeting fundamental biological pathways of cancer. Leveraging our extensive capabilities across cancer biology and medicinal chemistry, the Company’s Integrated Discovery approach, developed by our team under Kevin’s leadership, has already yielded multiple potentially best-in-class clinical candidates, including our Wee1 inhibitor, ZN-c3, and BCL-2 inhibitor, ZN-d5. We look forward to generating additional innovative candidates as we look to grow our investigational pipeline of potentially transformative oncology therapeutics.”

Dr. Bunker is a co-founder of Zentalis Pharmaceuticals and previously served as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Company. He has been leading R&D at Zentalis since the Company’s formation. In addition to leading R&D, Dr. Bunker has led and overseen several departments as COO, including Drug Supply and Manufacturing, Regulatory Affairs, Quality Assurance, Translational Science, Operations, Program Management, Commercial Development, and Human Resources. Prior to Zentalis, he co-founded Kalyra Pharmaceuticals, a small molecule drug discovery and development company focused on creating best-in-class medicines. Previously, he was a member of Pfizer’s drug discovery research group, as part of the Medicinal Chemistry Department, where he specialized in multiple therapeutic areas, including oncology, diabetes, antivirals, and ophthalmology. Earlier in his career, Dr. Bunker conducted postdoctoral research at The Scripps Research Institute under the direction of Dr. Dale Boger. He received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of California, San Diego under the direction of Dr. Joseph O’Connor and his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Arizona State University.

“Zentalis’ mission is focused on discovering and developing differentiated small molecules that have the potential to overcome the limitations of current cancer therapies and ultimately improve patient outcomes,” said Dr. Bunker. “I am excited to take on the role of Chief Scientific Officer and lead our efforts to further accelerate the discovery and development of additional promising novel candidates that we can rapidly advance into the clinic.”