aTyr Pharma has appointed Eric Benevich to the company’s Board of Directors.

Benevich currently serves as Chief Commercial Officer at Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc.

“We are excited to welcome Eric Benevich to the Board of Directors. His extensive background bringing new products to market and the knowledge and expertise he has gained from both building and leading commercial activities at biopharmaceutical companies will be an invaluable resource as aTyr continues its evolution towards commercialization,” said Timothy P. Coughlin, Chairman of the Board of aTyr.

Benevich has served as Chief Commercial Officer of Neurocrine since May 2015 and is responsible for all aspects of commercial development, marketing, and sales of the Neurocrine product portfolio.

Benevich has over 30 years of commercial experience in the pharmaceutical industry and previously served in various positions of increasing responsibility at AstraZeneca, Amgen, Peninsula Pharmaceuticals, and Avanir Pharmaceuticals in the sales and marketing of drugs such as Prilosec®, Epogen®, Enbrel®, and Neudexta®. Benevich has a BBA in International Business from Washington State University.

aTyr is a clinical stage biotechnology company leveraging evolutionary intelligence to translate tRNA synthetase biology into new therapies for fibrosis and inflammation. tRNA synthetases are ancient, essential proteins that have evolved novel domains that regulate diverse pathways extracellularly in humans.

aTyr’s discovery platform is focused on unlocking hidden therapeutic intervention points by uncovering signaling pathways driven by its proprietary library of domains derived from all 20 tRNA synthetases.