LEXINGTON, Mass., Jan. 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Agenus Inc.
(NASDAQ: AGEN), an immuno-oncology company with a pipeline of
immune checkpoint antibodies and cancer vaccines, announced new
leadership appointments to enhance its team and advance combination
clinical programs which will support its planned BLA filings in the
second half of 2019 and in 2020.
Dr. Youssoufian will serve as Senior Clinical Strategist to
provide overall strategic and tactical guidance to Agenus' clinical
team for the advancement of our ongoing lead combination
programs. Dr. Youssoufian brings over 25 years of product
development and approval experience, particularly in
biologics.
Dr. John Castle is a pioneer in
translational bioinformatics and genomics and leader in the
identification of immune-inducing antigens for cancer therapy. Dr.
Castle will drive the application of mutational and biochemical
based neoantigens for the development and evaluation of effective
cancer treatments.
Dr. Tyler Curiel is appointed
Senior Strategist for Translational and Biomarker
Development. Dr. Curiel is a world-renowned
physician-scientist and trained immunologist, past chief of
hematology and medical oncology and executive director of an
NCI-designated cancer center. Drs. Castle and Curiel will drive the
translational and biomarker approaches to select patients most
likely to benefit from combination approaches of our vaccines,
adjuvants, and checkpoint modulating antibodies targeting T cells,
tumor micro-environment conditioning, and regulatory T cell
depletion strategies.
"These appointments will help drive landmark advances in cancer
treatments here at Agenus," said Dr. Garo
Armen, Chairman and CEO. "These experts share our vision to
quickly bring effective combination approaches to patients with
cancer and will advance our currently ongoing pivotal programs with
CTLA-4 and PD-1 designed to support a BLA filing in the second half
of 2019."
Dr. Hagop Youssoufian brings more
than 25 years of drug development expertise with specific
experience in the development of protein-based therapeutics. Hagop
has served in various senior roles in the pharmaceutical and
biotechnology industry, including tenures as Chief Medical Officer
at ImClone-Lilly and as President of R&D at Ziopharm and was
involved in the development and approval of several oncology
biologic products, including Erbitux® and
Cyramza®. He is an elected member of the American
Society for Clinical Investigation. Hagop received his Bachelor of
Science from Boston College, his
medical degree from the University of
Massachusetts Medical School and completed training in
Internal Medicine and fellowship in Clinical Genetics at
Johns Hopkins and in
Hematology-Oncology at Massachusetts
General Hospital. Hagop was a Visiting Scientist at Whitehead
Institute with subsequent academic positions at Harvard Medical School and Baylor College of Medicine.
Dr. John Castle is a pioneer in
the identification of immunogenic antigens for application in
cancer treatment. At Agenus, Dr. Castle revolutionized our
neoantigen approach to vaccines from an autologous approach to a
computationally driven, fully synthetic, off-the shelf approach
to cancer therapy. He previously served in leadership
positions at TRON and BioNTech AG (Mainz, Germany), where he built translational
bioinformatics and genomics departments focused on immunotherapies.
Under his leadership, these organizations pioneered approaches to
identify immunogenic tumor mutations. John spent his early career
at Rosetta Inpharmatics, later part of Merck & Co, where he
gained expertise in integrating bioinformatics, computational
immunology, biotechnology and genomics. John studied physics at
Rice University, received his PhD from
the University of Washington, and
completed his post-doctoral studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dr. Tyler Curiel is a Professor
of Hematology/Oncology in the Department of Medicine at
University of Texas Health San Antonio
(UTHSA), where he also holds the Daisy M. Skinner President's Chair
in Cancer Immunology Research. Tyler is a physician-scientist
and world recognized expert in tumor immunology and immunotherapy,
Phase 1 experimental therapeutics and gynecologic cancers. He is
board certified in internal medicine, infectious disease, and
medical oncology. He is past chief of hematology and
medical oncology and executive director of an NCI-designated cancer
center and leads the Experimental and Developmental Therapeutics
Program at UTHSA. Tyler is a leading expert in PD-L1/PD-1
immune-biology and regulatory T cells will serve as our Strategic
Advisor of Translational Medicine.
About Agenus
Agenus is a clinical-stage
immuno-oncology company focused on the discovery and development of
therapies that engage the body's immune system to fight cancer. The
Company's vision is to expand the patient populations benefiting
from cancer immunotherapy by pursuing a number of combination
approaches that leverage a broad repertoire of antibody
therapeutics and proprietary cancer vaccine platforms. The Company
is equipped with a suite of antibody discovery platforms and a
state-of-the-art GMP manufacturing facility with the capacity to
support early phase clinical programs. Agenus is headquartered
in Lexington, MA. For more information, please
visit www.agenusbio.com; information that may be important to
investors will be routinely posted on our website.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are
made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the federal
securities laws, including statements regarding Agenus' clinical
trial plans and activities and the anticipated contributions of
each of Dr. Hagop Youssoufian, Dr.
John Castle and Dr. Tyler Curiel. These forward-looking statements
are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties
include, among others, the factors described under the Risk Factors
section of our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q or Annual
Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. Agenus cautions investors not to place considerable
reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this
release. These statements speak only as of the date of this press
release, and Agenus undertakes no obligation to update or revise
the statements, other than to the extent required by
law. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in
their entirety by this cautionary statement.
Contact:
Agenus Inc.
Jennifer Buell, PhD
781-674-4420
Jennifer.Buell@agenusbio.com
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SOURCE Agenus