Sage Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SAGE), a biopharmaceutical company committed to developing novel therapies with the potential to transform the lives of people with debilitating disorders of the brain, today announced the appointment of Chris Benecchi as Chief Commercial Officer. In his new role, Mr. Benecchi will lead Sage’s global commercial efforts across all Sage programs, new product planning, strategy, and competitive intelligence.

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Chris Benecchi, Chief Commercial Officer, Sage Therapeutics (Photo: Business Wire)

“Chris Benecchi is an innovator, a transformative global commercial leader and a strategic launch expert,” said Barry Greene, Chief Executive Officer at Sage Therapeutics. “He has a track record of designing winning commercial strategies and launching novel therapies that have sustained long-term growth in highly competitive markets. I am confident that Chris will provide the vision, leadership and strategic thinking needed to drive the commercialization efforts across Sage’s portfolio and with our partners as we continue on our mission to successfully build a top tier biopharmaceutical company.”

As a highly engaged, cross-functional leader, Mr. Benecchi will work in collaboration with internal partners to create a shared, mission-driven, launch vision that reflects the input we receive from external stakeholders. Among his responsibilities will be to ensure smooth working relationships with Sage’s partners and an integrated commercialization plan for zuranolone – a once-daily, two-week therapy in Phase 3 clinical development for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) and postpartum depression (PPD). Mr. Benecchi will also lead commercialization strategies across the company’s leading portfolio of treatments for brain health disorders.

“With a robust pipeline of differentiated products being studied for their potential to improve brain health, it is an exciting time to join Sage and help execute plans to accelerate development of innovative treatments on a global level with a potential impact, if we are successful, on several hundred million people around the world,” said Chris Benecchi. “It is an honor to join Sage’s world-class team at such a pivotal moment in the advancement of multiple programs across the company’s depression, neurology, and neuropsychiatric franchises.”

Chris Benecchi joins Sage from Alexion, where he served as Vice President, Global Head of Commercial Excellence. Previously, he spent eight years at UCB in commercial roles of increasing responsibility including Global Launch Head, Commercial and Medical Affairs, Immunology and Global Commercial Strategy Lead, Immunology. He began his career in sales at J&J and held sales leadership and senior marketing roles at Takeda as well. Mr. Benecchi received an MBA from Duke University and a BA from Colby College.

About Sage Therapeutics

Sage Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company committed to developing novel therapies with the potential to transform the lives of people with debilitating disorders of the brain. We are pursuing new pathways with the goal of improving brain health and our depression, neurology and neuropsychiatry franchise programs aim to change how brain disorders are thought about and treated. Our mission is to make medicines that matter so people can get better, sooner. For more information, please visit www.sagerx.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Various statements in this release concern Sage's future expectations, plans and prospects, including without limitation, our views and expectations regarding: the potential success of our development-stage products; the potential for future launch and commercialization of any such products, if successfully developed; the potential profile and benefit of the products we are developing; the number of people who may benefit from our products, if successfully developed and approved; the mission, vision, strategies, plans and goals for our business; and the potential for value creation. These statements constitute forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees of future performance, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in these forward-looking statements, including the risks that: we may not successfully complete development of any of our current or future product candidates in any indication we are currently pursuing or may in the future pursue; success in non-clinical studies or in earlier clinical trials or at interim time periods may not be repeated or observed in ongoing or future studies, and ongoing and future non-clinical and clinical results may not meet their primary or key secondary endpoints; the results of completed, ongoing and future studies may not be sufficient to file for or gain regulatory approval to market a product without further development work; unexpected concerns may arise from additional data, analysis or results from any of our completed studies; we may encounter adverse events at any stage that negatively impact further development, our ability to seek or obtain regulatory approval or commercialization of such product; we may encounter delays in initiation, conduct or completion of our ongoing and planned clinical trials; the FDA and other regulatory agencies may ultimately decide that the design or results of our completed, ongoing and planned clinical trials, even if positive, are not sufficient to file for or obtain regulatory approval in the indications that are the focus of our development plans even if we have had prior discussions with the agency supporting our approach; other decisions or actions of the FDA or other regulatory agencies may affect the initiation, timing, design, size, and progress of clinical trials and our ability to proceed with further development or our ability to obtain approval; even if we obtain regulatory approval of a new product, our launch efforts may not be successful and we may never be able to generate meaningful revenues from sales of such product at levels we expect or at levels necessary to justify our investment; the number of patients with the diseases or disorders for which our products are developed, the unmet need for additional treatment options and the potential market for our current or future products may be significantly smaller than we expect; and we may encounter technical and other unexpected hurdles in the development or manufacture of our product candidates or the manufacture, distribution or commercialization of our marketed product which may delay our timing or change our plans or otherwise negatively impact our business; as well as those risks more fully discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, as well as discussions of potential risks, uncertainties, and other important factors in our subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, any forward-looking statements represent our views only as of today, and should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date. We explicitly disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

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