WATERTOWN, Mass., Aug. 31, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Acrivon Therapeutics, Inc. ("Acrivon" or "Acrivon Therapeutics") (Nasdaq: ACRV), a clinical stage biotechnology company discovering and developing precision medicines utilizing its proprietary Generative Phosphoproteomics AP3 (Acrivon Predictive Precision Proteomics) platform deployed for rational drug design and predictive clinical development, today announced the appointment of Michaela Levin, Ph.D., as chief business officer, effective August 31, 2026. Dr. Levin comes with a solid, broad background in biotechnology business development, corporate strategy and transactional execution spanning mergers and acquisitions, global and regional partnerships, technology licensing and strategic portfolio development. In her role at Acrivon, she will work in close concert with the executive team leading the company's business development and partnering activities, including the identification, evaluation and execution of strategic opportunities designed to maximize the value of Acrivon's AP3 platform and pipeline.
"Michaela is an accomplished business development leader with a strong track record of identifying, structuring and executing value-creating transactions across multiple therapeutic areas," said Peter Blume-Jensen, M.D., Ph.D., chief executive officer, president and co-founder of Acrivon. "We are excited to welcome her to Acrivon, where her extensive transaction experience and industry relationships will be critical in launching our strategic business development and partnering efforts."
"I am excited to join Acrivon at an important stage in the company's evolution," said Dr. Levin. "Acrivon's differentiated AI-driven AP3 platform and growing pipeline create highly compelling opportunities for strategic collaborations. I look forward to working with Peter and the whole team to build productive partnerships that create tangible value through disciplined and creative dealmaking."
Dr. Levin most recently served as vice president of business development at Recursion, formerly Exscientia, an AI platform company, where she helped prioritize the company's oncology and rare disease portfolio, led the acquisition of full rights to the ENPP1 inhibitor REV102 from Rallybio and negotiated multiple strategic term sheets. Previously, Dr. Levin served as vice president of product intelligence and business development at Editas Medicine, where she helped shape portfolio strategy and negotiate licensing transactions, including a Cas9 gene-editing technology license with Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Earlier, she held business development leadership positions at Ovid Therapeutics where she negotiated several licenses including the exclusive global licensing agreement with AstraZeneca. Prior to Ovid, she was at Constellation Pharmaceuticals, where she drove the due diligence leading to the company's $1.7 billion acquisition by MorphoSys AG. She began her business development and technology commercialization career at Harvard University's Office of Technology Development and Mass General Brigham, where she managed and licensed life sciences intellectual property and helped establish multiple biotechnology spinouts.
Dr. Levin earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Virginia and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in neurobiology at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Inducement Awards
In connection with Dr. Levin's appointment as chief business officer, the company has approved inducement awards for her to join Acrivon under its 2023 Inducement Plan. The inducement awards are in the form of restricted stock units and stock options and have a grant date of August 31, 2026.
The employee received options to purchase 130,000 shares of Acrivon's common stock and 30,000 restricted stock units. The stock options have an exercise price per share equal to the closing price of Acrivon's common stock on the Nasdaq Global Market on the date of grant. The stock options will vest 25% on the first anniversary of the first day of the month following the effective date of such employee's employment and in additional 2.083% installments on a monthly basis thereafter, subject to such employee's continued employment on each vesting date. The restricted stock units will vest 100% on the first anniversary of the first day of the month following the effective date of employment, subject to continued employment on the vesting date.
The inducement grants were approved by Acrivon's Board of Directors, as required by Nasdaq Rule 5635(c)(4), and were granted as a material inducement to employment in accordance with Nasdaq Rule 5635(c)(4).
About Acrivon Therapeutics
Acrivon is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing precision medicines utilizing its proprietary Generative Phosphoproteomics AP3 platform. The platform allows the company to interpret and quantify compound specific, drug-regulated pathway activity levels inside the intact cell in an unbiased manner, yielding terabytes of proprietary data and delivering rapid, actionable insights. The AP3 platform is comprised of a growing suite of powerful, internally-developed tools, including the AP3 Data Portal, converting multimodal data into structured data for generative AI analyses, the AP3 Kinase Substrate Relationship Predictor and the AP3 Interactome. These distinctive capabilities enable the company to go beyond the limitations of traditional drug discovery, as well as current AI-based target-centric drug discovery and rapidly design highly differentiated compounds with desirable pathway effects through intracellular protein network analyses and advance these agents into the clinic for streamlined development.
Acrivon is currently advancing its lead program, ACR-368 (also known as prexasertib), a selective small molecule inhibitor targeting CHK1 and CHK2 in a potentially registrational Phase 2 trial for EC. The company has received Fast Track designation from the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, for the investigation of ACR-368 as a monotherapy based on OncoSignature-predicted sensitivity in patients with EC. The FDA has granted a Breakthrough Device designation for the ACR-368 OncoSignature assay for the identification of patients with endometrial cancer who may benefit from ACR-368 treatment.
In addition to ACR-368, Acrivon is also leveraging its proprietary Generative AI-driven Phosphoproteomics AP3 platform for developing its co-crystallography-driven, internally discovered pipeline programs. These include ACR-2316, a novel, potent, selective WEE1/PKMYT1 inhibitor designed for superior single-agent activity. The Phase 1/2 study of ACR-2316 is advancing in a randomized dose expansion phase. Initial data has shown a highly differentiated, favorable safety profile primarily limited to only transient, mechanism-based hematological adverse events, predominantly only neutropenia. Clinical activity has been observed across multiple tumor types, including SCLC, squamous NSCLC and lung adenocarcinoma, tumor types not shown sensitive to current single-agent WEE1 or PKMYT1 inhibitors. Durable clinical activity has been observed, with certain lung cancer subjects remaining on treatment more than one year.
In addition, the company is in early IND-enabling studies with several potential first-in-class development candidates targeting CDK11.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes certain disclosures that contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 about us and our industry that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this press release, including statements regarding our future results of operations or financial condition, business strategy and plans and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as "anticipate," "believe," "contemplate," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "target," "will," or "would" or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on Acrivon's current expectations and are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties that are described more fully in the section titled "Risk Factors" in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of this date, and Acrivon undertakes no duty to update such information except as required under applicable law.
Acrivon intends to use its website as a means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with its disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. For more information, please visit www.acrivon.com.
Investor and Media Contacts:
Adam D. Levy, Ph.D., M.B.A.
alevy@acrivon.com
Alexandra Santos
asantos@wheelhouselsa.com
