{"id":3086,"date":"2022-10-26T13:34:16","date_gmt":"2022-10-26T13:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/?p=3086"},"modified":"2022-10-26T13:34:16","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T13:34:16","slug":"nigeria-54genes-co-founder-abasi-ene-obong-steps-down-as-ceo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/nigeria-54genes-co-founder-abasi-ene-obong-steps-down-as-ceo\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria: 54gene\u2019s Co-founder Abasi Ene-Obong steps down as CEO"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Co-founder and Chief Executive officer of leading genomics startup\u00a0<\/span>54gene<\/span><\/strong>, Abasi Ene-Obong, has stepped down from his role barely two months after the company laid off 95 of its staff members.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A month ago, the startup\u2019s Co-founder and VP of Engineering, Ogochukwu Francis Osifo, also resigned for unknown reasons.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A statement by the company, seen by Nairametrics, explained that 54gene\u2019s General Counsel, Teresia L. Bost, will assume the role of interim CEO. Bost will be supported in the meantime by the company\u2019s Chief Operating Officer Delali Attipoe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Dr Ene-Obong will continue to support the company in the role of Senior Advisor and retain his position on the 54gene Board of Directors.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The statement by the company said Abasi\u2019s exit was with an immediate effect.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Although the company did not give any reason for his decision to step down, recent events such as the earlier resignation of Osifo and the sacking of 95 employees (all within two months) suggest that things might not be going so well in the company.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What they are saying\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

54gene\u2019s board Chairperson and Managing Partner at Adjuvant Capital, Jenny Yip, expressed the board\u2019s gratitude to the former CEO for being \u201ca champion of major strides made in the company\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  • \u201cWe thank Dr Ene-Obong for shining a light on the need to bring novel drugs to the world based on insights drawn from the healthcare and research ecosystem in Africa. His vision and innovation have positioned 54gene to make a long-term impact on people around the world, and his tenure as CEO has seen him record significant strides in Africa\u2019s, and the global life sciences sector\u201d,<\/span><\/em>\u00a0he said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    On his part, the outgoing CEO, Dr Abasi Ene-Obong expressed gratitude to the board and said he will continue to work with the company as it embarks on a new phase.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    • \u201cI have always believed that the scale of genetic diversity in Africa and other highly diverse populations will materially impact our understanding of biology and lead to better medicines and interventions for the global population, and I am proud of what has been achieved at 54gene. I will continue to support the company and the scientific ecosystem, particularly the African genomics ecosystem.<\/span><\/em><\/li>\n
    • \u201cTeresia and Delali bring decades of experience in building and scaling high-impact global pharma companies, and they also have deep insight into the workings of 54gene. I am excited to see them take the company to its next phase,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      What you should know\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
        \n
      • Founded in 2019 by Ene-Obong, 54gene addresses the gap in the global genomics market where Africans make up less than 3% of genetic material used in pharmaceutical research despite being more genetically diverse than any other population.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
      • The project has received over $40 million from investors such as Adjuvant Capital, Y Combinator, and Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund (CAIF) and partnered with organizations like Illumina, Genentech, and Parexel.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
      • The company\u2019s most recent funding was in September 2021 when it secured $25 million in a Series B round.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        The Co-founder and Chief Executive officer of leading genomics startup\u00a054gene, Abasi Ene-Obong, has stepped down from his role barely two months after the company laid off 95 of its staff…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[90,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nigeria","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/CB3E7293-EF4C-4917-9033-097B574B3D29.jpeg?fit=745%2C412&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3086"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3088,"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3086\/revisions\/3088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}