TRIGR Therapeutics, Inc. ("TRIGR"), a clinical stage
biotechnology company focused on the development of multi-targeted
and immunomodulatory bispecific antibodies, announced today the
formation of its global Clinical and Scientific Advisory Board
(CSAB) comprising of 10 key appointments.
The CSAB will work closely with TRIGR's leadership team as it
prepares to advance lead product candidate TR009 (ABL001, NOV1501),
a dual-angiogenesis bispecific antibody, into global phase 1b/2
clinical trials in gastric, colorectal and other solid tumors
expressing VEGF and DLL4 and to support IND enabling efforts for
TRIGR's dual checkpoint and immune engaging bispecific antibody
pipeline.
"We are honored to have convened this world-class group of
gastrointestinal cancer and drug development leaders to our CSAB.
Their clinical expertise and drug approval record will be
invaluable to our strategy," said George Uy, Founder and CEO of
TRIGR. "This group's deep experience in oncology drug development
from initial discovery to late-stage clinical studies will provide
support through this next stage of growth for our pipeline and
Company."
The appointments to TRIGR's CSAB include:
Clinical Oncologist / Cancer Translational Research Advisors
- (Chair) Professor Edward Chu MD, M.M,S. UPMC Hillman Cancer
Center and University of Pittsburgh
- Professor Yung-Jue Bang, MD, Seoul National University College of
Medicine and Hospital
- Professor Eric Van Cutsem, MD, PhD University of Leuven
- Professor Cathy Eng, MD, The University of Texas MD Anderson
Cancer Center
- Professor Howard Hochster, MD, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson
Medical School
- Professor Jin Li, MD, Tongji University Shanghai East
Hospital
- Professor Patricia M. LoRusso, DO, Yale Cancer Center
Pharmaceutical Industry / Drug Development Advisors
- Dr. Jean-Pierre Bizzari, MD former EVP and Global Head of
Oncology at Celgene Corporation
- Dr. Joanna Horobin M.B., Ch.B., Chief Medical Officer of Idera
Pharmaceuticals
- Dr. Ye Hua, MD, MPH, CEO, Bionova, former Clinical/Regulatory
Head at Hutchison MediPharm
Dr. Edward Chu MD, M.M.S. (CSAB Chairman) is Professor of Medicine,
Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, Chief of the Division of
Hematology-Oncology and Deputy Director of the UPMC Hillman Cancer
Center (HCC). Additionally, Dr. Chu serves as Co-Leader of HCC's
Cancer Therapeutics and Phase I Program. Dr. Chu is a leading
expert in the field of cancer therapeutics and cancer drug
development, with a focus on clinical and translational research of
gastrointestinal cancers. He is a member of the American Society of
Clinical Oncology (ASCO), European Society of Medical Oncology
(ESMO), American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), American
Association for the Advancement of Science, and American College of
Physicians. Dr. Chu also serves on the scientific advisory boards
of several NCI-designated cancer centers, including Albert
Einstein, Dartmouth, Columbia, Duke Cancer Institute, University of
Southern California, and serves on the advisory board for the
Taiwan National Cancer Institute.
Dr. Yung-Jue Bang, MD has served as Professor of Medical Oncology
at the Seoul National University College of Medicine and Hospital
since 1986. Dr. Bang has more than 30 years of experience in
translational research and clinical trials, mainly focused on
gastric cancer and phase I trials of new anticancer agents. He has
also served as Director of the Cancer Research Institute, President
of Biomedical Research Institute and the Director of Clinical
Trials Center.
Professor Eric Van Cutsem, MD, PhD serves as Professor of Internal
Medicine at the University of Leuven (KULeuven) and Head of the
Digestive Oncology Unit at the University Hospital Gasthuisberg in
Leuven, Belgium. He became doctor honoris causa of the Medical
University of Warsaw, Poland in June 2018. He is member of the
Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine since 2015 and President of the
Belgian Foundation Against Cancer since October 2016. Professor Van
Cutsem is a world-renowned expert in GI cancer and has lead
multiple clinical, translational and pivotal studies in the space.
Professor Van Cutsem has published more than 550 peer-reviewed
articles. Prof Van Cutsem is/was a member of the scientific program
committee and/or educational committee of ASCO, ASCO-GI cancers
symposium, ESMO, UEG, and ECCO. He served for ESMO as executive
board member from 2011 to 2013 and since 2014 is on the ESMO press
committee. He was secretary from 2000 to 2003, chair of the
EORTC-GI group from 2003 to 2007. He was board member of the EORTC
from 2009 to 2015 and is president of European Society of Digestive
Oncology (ESDO) Eric Van Cutsem has been the founder of and Chair
of the Scientific Committee of the ESMO/World Congress on
Gastrointestinal Cancer in Barcelona.
Dr. Cathy Eng, MD, FACP, FASCO, Professor, and Sophie Caroline
Steves Distinguished Professorship for Cancer Research has served
as faculty at MD Anderson for the past 16 years. Dr. Eng has
assumed leadership positions devoted to clinical research and has
focused on the development of phase I-III clinical trials using
novel therapeutics for biomarker discovery and enhanced drug
utilization in colorectal, appendiceal and anal cancer patients.
Within MDACC, she is the Chairman of the Scientific Review,
Clinical Research Committee and contact PI for the
multidisciplinary NCI National Clinical Trials Network Lead
Academic Participating Sites U10 and more recently the UG1 Grant
(NCTN LAPS U10 Grant), an umbrella grant to conduct cancer research
within all 4 clinical Network groups (The Alliance, ECOG-Acrin,
NRG, and SWOG). Dr. Eng was a 2-term Chairman of the NCI
Rectal-Anal Task Force, serves on ECOG and SWOG and is the newly
elected Vice-Chair of the SWOG GI Committee. Dr. Eng has published
in many peer reviewed journals including JCO, Lancet Oncology,
Nature Review, Annals of Oncology, Cancer, and Annals of Surgical
Oncology.
Dr. Howard Hochster, MD is an internationally recognized leader in
the development of cancer clinical trials, gastrointestinal
oncology, and early-phase cancer drugs. Dr. Hochster, is a
Distinguished Professor of Medicine in the Division of Medical
Oncology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Prior to
joining Rutgers, he was faculty at the Yale Cancer Center and the
Yale School of Medicine, where he also served as team leader for
the Gastrointestinal Cancers Program. Dr. Hochster served as a
clinical program leader for the Gastrointestinal Cancers Program at
Smilow Cancer Hospital. Dr. Hochster, whose most recent clinical
trials work involves the investigation of checkpoint inhibitors in
gastrointestinal cancers, has decades of clinical trial experience
and has collaborated with national cooperative groups, as well as
the National Cancer Institute.
Professor Jin Li, MD is a Professor at Tongji University Shanghai
East Hospital and serves as the Dean of Department of Oncology of
East Hospital and President of the Chinese Society of Clinical
Oncology (CSCO) and member ASCO. Professor Li is a world expert in
gastrointestinal cancer and cancer immunotherapy. He has
participated in approximately 150 clinical trials for the treatment
of various tumor types. Professor Li obtained his MD from Shanghai
Second Military Medical University and continued his postdoctoral
research at Yale University, engaging in cancer research of gene
therapy and biological therapy. He has published more than 100
papers in prestigious journals, including PNAS, Clinical Cancer
Research, Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, Anti-cancer
Research, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lancet Oncology, and
JAMA.
Dr. Patricia M. LoRusso, DO, is a leading expert on drug
development. She is currently a Professor of Medicine at Yale
University, Director of the Early Phase Clinical Trials Program and
the Associate Director of Experimental Therapeutics at the Yale
Cancer Center. Dr. LoRusso brings more than 25 years of expertise
in medical oncology, drug development, and early phase clinical
trials. Prior to her Yale appointment, Dr. LoRusso served in
numerous leadership roles at Wayne State University's Barbara Ann
Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, most recently as Director of
the Phase I Clinical Trials Program and of the Eisenberg Center for
Experimental Therapeutics. Dr. LoRusso has served in numerous
leadership roles. She has been a past co-chair of the National
Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program
Investigational Drug Steering Committee, as well as a active member
since inception. She also served on the board of directors and
numerous scientific committees of the American Association for
Cancer Research, the education and scientific committees of the
ASCO, numerous peer-reviewed study sections, and NCI
committees.
Dr. Jean-Pierre Bizzari, MD Dr. Bizzari is a world-renowned
oncology expert with over 35 years of broad experience in oncology
drug development. Dr. Bizzari served as Executive Vice President
and Global Head of Oncology at Celgene Corporation, responsible for
Celgene's clinical development and operations-statistics teams
across the United States, Europe and Asia/Japan where he oversaw
the development and approval of leading oncology products,
including REVLIMID(R) (lenalidomide), VIDAZA(R) (azacitidine),
ISTODAX(R) (romidepsin) and ABRAXANE(R) (nab-paclitaxel). In
addition, he was chairman of Celgene's hematology oncology
development committee and a member of the company's management
committee. Prior to Celgene, Dr. Bizzari was the Vice President,
Clinical Oncology Development for Sanofi-Aventis where he oversaw
the approval of ELOXATIN(R) (oxaliplatin), TAXOTERE(R) (docetaxel)
and ELITEK(R) (rasburicase). Dr. Bizzari joined the pharmaceutical
industry in 1983 as Head of Oncology at the Institut de Recherches
Internationales SERVIER (France). Dr. Bizzari is a member of the
Scientific Advisory Board of the French National Cancer Institute,
and the European Organization of Research and Treatment of Cancer
and Chairman of the New Drug Advisory Committee. Dr. Bizzari
received his medical degree from the Nice Medical School and has
trained at the Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital in Paris, The Ontario
Institute for Cancer Research, and The McGill Rosalind and Morris
Goodman Cancer Research Centre (formerly the McGill Cancer Center)
in Montreal, Canada.
Dr. Joanna Horobin M.B., Ch.B., is an accomplished drug developer
and biotech leader with over 35 years of industry experience,
primarily focused on the development of novel oncology agents. Dr.
Horobin serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer
of Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Previously, Dr. Horobin was the
Chief Medical Officer of Verastem, Inc. From 2006 to 2012, she
served as CEO of Syndax Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Horobin spent a year
as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at MPM Capital and held several roles
of increasing responsibility at global pharmaceutical corporations
such as Rhone-Poulenc Rorer (now Sanofi) where she spearheaded the
launch of the global Oncology business unit which included the
commercial introduction of TAXOTERE(R) (docetaxel) in breast cancer
and CAMPTO/CAMPTOSAR(R) (CPT11) for colorectal cancer. At
Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, Dr. Horobin also led a successful joint
venture with Chugai to develop and launch GRANULOCYTE(R)
(lenograstim) across Europe. Prior, Joanna played significant
leadership roles in the approvals of LOVENOX(R), CELECTOL(R),
AUGMENTIN(R), TIMENTIN(R), BACTROBAN(R) and RELAFEN(R)/RELIFLEX(R).
Dr. Horobin received her M.B. Ch.B. degrees (MD equivalent) from
the University of Manchester, United Kingdom and gained membership
of the Royal College of General Practitioners (MRCGP) and the
Diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine from the Royal Colleges of
Medicine.
Dr. Ye Hua, MD, MPH, currently founder and CEO of BioNova
Pharmaceuticals (Shanghai, China) has 20 years of global clinical
development and new drug registration experience in the
pharmaceutical industry. Most recently, Dr. Hua served as Senior VP
and Head of Clinical Development and Regulatory Affairs at
Hutchison MediPharm (Chi-Med), where he led over 30 Phase 1-3
clinical trials in oncology and immunology across China, the US and
Australia, including the pivotal program for ELONATE(R)
(fruquintinib). Dr. Hua started his career in the US at Pharmacia
& Upjohn in 1999 as a biostatistician (team leader in pivotal
Phase 3 registration trial of Humira(R)), then as a team leader/
clinical research physician at Novartis (RECLAST/ACLASTA(R),
PREXIGE(R), ZOMETA(R), PROLEUKIN(R) and CARDIOXANE(R) in the US and
EU), and most recently served as Senior Medical Director, Global
Clinical Development at Celgene Corporation where he led global
clinical teams for REVLIMID(R) and POMALYST(R) NDA/sNDA. Dr. Hua
graduated from Fudan University Shanghai Medical College and
obtained a Master Degree in cancer epidemiology at McGill
University, Montreal Canada.
About TRIGR Therapeutics
TRIGR (www.TrigrRx.com) is an emerging biotechnology company in the
field of next generation cancer therapies that was incorporated in
April 2018 and managed by biopharmaceuticals industry veterans.
TRIGR focuses on clinical development and commercialization of
targeted and immuno-modulatory drugs with validated mechanism of
action and novel formats for the US, European and Asian markets.
The Company's pipeline includes a clinical stage dual-angiogenesis
bispecific antibody program (TR009) and pre-clinical dual
checkpoint and immune engaging bispecific antibodies.
Contact:
George Uy, CEO & Founder, GUy@TrigrRx.com
Miranda Toledano, COO/CFO, Miranda.Toledano@TrigrRx.com
SOURCE: TRIGR Therapeutics, Inc.
Source: TRIGR Therapeutics, Inc.
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