Concerto Biosciences Expands Executive Leadership Team To Support Product Development And Business Partnership Initiatives

From left: Dr. Bernardo Cervantes, Chief Operating Officer; Dr. Roger Frechette, Chief Business Officer; Jim Sigler, Executive Vice President of CMC

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Concerto Biosciences today announced the addition of three key positions to the company’s Executive Leadership Team. Dr. Roger Frechette will serve as Chief Business Officer while Jim Sigler joins as Executive Vice President of Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC). Dr. Bernardo Cervantes, a cofounder of Concerto, transitions into the role of Chief Operating Officer.

“With decades of experience and know-how in the areas of manufacturing and business development, Jim and Roger provide critical expertise to spur Concerto’s momentum,” said Dr. Cervantes. “Their addition to the Leadership Team drives Concerto's success in two major ways: preparing for our first in-human trial in 2024 and expanding our portfolio of partnership-driven product discovery programs.”

Dr. Frechette is a veteran life science executive with extensive experience in strategic planning and business development. At Concerto, he will optimize the company's platform strategy in order to close co-discovery and co-development deals with prospective partners. “Concerto provides a unique solution to enable the discovery of microbiome-modulating products that will change the way that humanity interacts with microbes”, Frechette said. “Equipped with a highly positive and productive company culture as well, the Concerto team is poised to change the direction of microbiome product modalities and multiple industries. I am immensely excited to be able to help in that.” Frechette’s business acumen derives from an array of previous successes spanning entrepreneurship, leadership in project and strategic alliance management, and biotech R&D.

Sigler, who has been developing drugs for over 30 years, will build a CMC roadmap at Concerto that integrates with clinical, quality, regulatory and financial considerations to ensure that strategy, team development, systems build-out, and subsequent execution all march together. He has been working in the microbiome space for the past seven years, leading manufacturing for four different programs, and historically has manufactured biologics for all phases of clinical development plus commercial. He will provide key leadership as Concerto works to bring its first product to trial in 2024. “What makes me so excited about Concerto is that we’re using the best tool out there—kChip—to identify and screen products for development,” Sigler said. “This puts us on the path most likely to succeed, and knowledge of the improved odds supports team focus and motivation.”

Cervantes previously served as Concerto’s Vice President of Product Development. With product development now fully underway, he will expand his role to oversee Concerto’s CMC, clinical, regulatory, and financial operations. An execution-oriented biotech entrepreneur and accomplished microbe engineer, he cofounded Concerto Biosciences to realize a future where live microbial products enhance everyday life. “A world where bacteria-based products are commonplace is inevitable,” Cervantes said. “Concerto’s technology and team present the best opportunity to build that—a new generation of effective microbial products. I am both humbled and honored to take on a new role in light of this aspiration.”

Since launching in 2020, Concerto has discovered Ensemble No.2 (ENS-002), a specific combination of skin-dwelling microbes intended to correct the microbial deficiency underlying eczema. In 2022, Concerto completed a $23 million Series A fundraise led by Safar Partners and joined by Horizons Ventures and M Ventures. In June 2023, they announced the launch of an initiative to discover Ensemble No.3 (ENS-003) for the treatment of vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC), or vaginal yeast infection. They will continue to innovate their patented kChip platform, which enables rapid discovery of microbe-based products across human health, agriculture, animal health, and consumer needs.