SERA PROGNOSTICS ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF JEFF ELLIOTT TO ITS BOARD; RYAN TRIMBLE AND MARCUS WILSON TO STEP DOWN

Rhea-AI Summary

Sera Prognostics (Nasdaq: SERA) announced significant changes to its Board of Directors. Jeff Elliott, currently a senior advisor at Boston Consulting Group and board member of Quanterix , will join the board on March 20, 2025. Elliott brings extensive experience in corporate strategy, business operations, and commercializing molecular diagnostics, having previously served as CFO and COO at Exact Sciences.

The company also announced that Ryan Trimble will retire and step down as director on June 30, 2025, after 14 years of service. Additionally, Marcus Wilson will not seek re-election at the 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Both departures are part of the board's ongoing efforts to refresh its composition and expertise.

These changes come at a important time as Sera begins leveraging its recent PRIME study results to build market presence for its PreTRM® test, focusing on improving maternal and neonatal health through pregnancy biomarker information.

Positive

• Strategic board refresh bringing expertise in commercial scaling and molecular diagnostics
• Successful completion of pivotal PRIME study
• Planned market expansion for PreTRM® test

Negative

• Loss of long-term board member experience with two simultaneous departures

SALT LAKE CITY, March 19, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Sera Prognostics Inc., The Pregnancy Company^® (Nasdaq: SERA), focused on improving maternal and neonatal health by providing innovative pregnancy biomarker information to doctors and patients, today announced that Jeff Elliott will join its Board of Directors on March 20, 2025. The Company further announced that Ryan Trimble—after 14 years serving Sera, its customers and its shareholders—has informed the Company of his intention to retire and step down as a director effective June 30, 2025 as part of the Board's ongoing efforts to refresh its composition, expertise and experience. Marcus Wilson also informed the Company that, as part of that same effort, he will not stand for re-election at the end of his term at the Company's 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.

"We are very excited for Jeff to join Sera and to make a talented board even deeper with his breadth and depth of expertise in commercially scaling companies in our sector," said Zhenya Lindgardt, President and CEO of Sera Prognostics. "He brings extensive experience in corporate strategy, business operations, analytics, public company finance, and commercializing molecular diagnostics. Jeff's unique background in growing diagnostics businesses will be helpful to Sera as we begin leveraging our recent PRIME results into active market building for our PreTRM^® test. We are grateful to Ryan Trimble for his strong strategic direction and steady hand in bringing Sera to where we are today. And we thank Marcus Wilson for his invaluable contributions to the Company, including his central role in the recently completed PRIME study. We wish Ryan and Marcus the best."

Mr. Elliott is currently a senior advisor at Boston Consulting Group and also serves on the board of directors of Quanterix Corporation (Nasdaq: QTRX), a publicly traded life science research tools and diagnostics company. Prior to these roles, Mr. Elliott served as chief financial officer of Exact Sciences (Nasdaq: EXAS) from 2016 through May 2024 and also as chief operating officer from 2021 through 2023. Prior to his appointment as chief financial officer, Mr. Elliott served as Exact Sciences' vice president, strategy and business development. From 2007 to 2016, Mr. Elliott was with Robert W. Baird & Co. where he was a senior equity research analyst covering healthcare companies, including the diagnostics and life science tools industry. Earlier in his career, Mr. Elliott worked as a business analyst at Walgreens and as a senior consultant at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. Mr. Elliott earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Mr. Elliott is a CFA charterholder.

"I am excited to join Sera's board and further its mission to improve the well-being of mothers and babies," said Mr. Elliott. "Sera is at a critical stage in its development, where smart and timely strategic decisions can make all the difference. I hope to help guide the company's strategy and advise management on its execution."

"Sera is well positioned for the next phase of its growth from a start-up when I joined to now, 14 years later, a leader in pregnancy health," said Dr. Trimble. "With the pivotal PRIME study now completed and commercialization expected to begin in earnest, and with someone of Jeff's caliber joining the Board, this is the right time for me to leave the Company in good hands. I am excited to watch Sera's progress in the coming years."

"I am very pleased with the success of the PRIME study," said Dr. Wilson, "and am confident Sera can fully leverage it as the evolving team turns to delivering the PreTRM^® test to the mothers and babies who need it. I look forward to supporting the Company in this transition."

About Sera Prognostics, Inc.

Sera Prognostics is a leading health diagnostics company dedicated to improving the lives of women and babies through precision pregnancy care. Sera's mission is to provide early, pivotal pregnancy information to improve the health of mothers and newborns, resulting in reductions in the costs of healthcare delivery. Sera has a robust pipeline of innovative diagnostic tests focused on the early prediction of preterm birth risk and other complications of pregnancy. Sera's precision medicine PreTRM^® Test reports to a physician the individualized risk of spontaneous premature delivery in a pregnancy, enabling earlier proactive interventions in women with higher risk. Sera Prognostics is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.

About Preterm Birth

Preterm birth is defined as any birth before 37 weeks' gestation and is the leading cause of illness and death in newborns. The 2024 March of Dimes Report Card shows that, for the last six consecutive years, more than one in ten infants is born prematurely in the United States. Prematurity is associated with a significantly increased risk of major long-term medical complications, including learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, chronic respiratory illness, intellectual disability, seizures, and vision and hearing loss, and can generate significant costs throughout the lives of affected children. The annual health care costs to manage short- and long-term complications of prematurity in the United States were estimated to be approximately $25 billion for 2016.

About the PreTRM^® Test

The PreTRM^® Test is the only broadly validated, commercially available blood-based biomarker test that provides an early, accurate and individualized risk prediction for spontaneous preterm birth in asymptomatic singleton pregnancies. The PreTRM^® Test measures and analyzes proteins in the blood that are highly predictive of preterm birth. The PreTRM^® Test permits physicians to identify, during the weeks 18 through 20 of pregnancy, which women are at increased risk for preterm birth and its complications, enabling more informed, personalized clinical decisions based on each woman's individual risk. The PreTRM^® Test is ordered by a medical professional.

Sera, Sera Prognostics, the Sera Prognostics logo, The Pregnancy Company, and PreTRM are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sera Prognostics, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements relating to Jeffrey T. Elliott joining the Company's Board of Directors on March 20, 2025; Ryan Trimble retiring and stepping down as a director effective June 30, 2025; Marcus Wilson not standing for re-election at the end of his term at the Company's 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders; market building for the PreTRM^® test and commercialization beginning in earnest; and the company's strategic directives under the caption "About Sera Prognostics, Inc." These "forward-looking statements" are based on management's current expectations of future events and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those set forth in or implied by forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: net losses, cash generation, and the potential need to raise more capital; revenues from the PreTRM Test representing substantially all Company revenues to date; the need for broad scientific and market acceptance of the PreTRM Test; a concentrated number of material customers; our ability to introduce new products; potential competition; our proprietary biobank; critical suppliers; estimates of total addressable market opportunity and forecasts of market growth; potential third-party payer coverage and reimbursement; new reimbursement methodologies applicable to the PreTRM Test, including new CPT codes and payment rates for those codes; changes in FDA regulation of laboratory-developed tests; the intellectual property rights protecting our tests and market position; and other factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as any updates to those risk factors filed from time to time in our periodic and current reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All information in this press release is as of the date of the release, and the Company undertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law. 

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SOURCE Sera Prognostics, Inc.

FAQ

When will Jeff Elliott join Sera Prognostics (SERA) Board of Directors?

Jeff Elliott will join Sera Prognostics' Board of Directors on March 20, 2025.

What is Jeff Elliott's background and experience before joining SERA's board?

Elliott was CFO of Exact Sciences (2016-2024), COO (2021-2023), and is currently a senior advisor at Boston Consulting Group and board member of Quanterix

Why are Ryan Trimble and Marcus Wilson leaving SERA's board?

Their departures are part of the board's ongoing efforts to refresh its composition, expertise, and experience. Trimble is retiring after 14 years, while Wilson won't seek re-election.

How does Jeff Elliott's appointment align with SERA's current business strategy?

Elliott's expertise in scaling companies and commercializing molecular diagnostics aligns with Sera's plans to leverage PRIME study results and build market presence for their PreTRM® test.