Oncorus, Inc. (Nasdaq: ONCR), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical
company developing next-generation viral immunotherapies to
transform outcomes for cancer patients, today announced the
appointment of Steve Harbin as Chief Operating Officer and Chief of
Staff.
“I am thrilled to welcome Steve to the Oncorus team. He is
uniquely qualified to help steer the strategic growth of our
company at this pivotal timepoint,” said Theodore (Ted) Ashburn,
M.D. Ph.D., President and CEO of Oncorus. “We continue to advance
the Phase 1 study of our lead viral immunotherapy candidate,
ONCR-177, and progress our earlier stage viral immunotherapy
candidates toward candidate nomination, including our innovative
synthetic virus candidates. We believe that our infrastructure,
organization and internal processes are poised for significant
expansion in the coming months. Having Steve architect this
evolution is an obvious choice.”
Mr. Harbin commented, “I am excited to join the Oncorus team at
this exciting time in the company’s journey. It takes good science,
good people and good business to develop and grow a leading
biotech, and I have found them all here at Oncorus. The promise of
Oncorus’ two novel viral immunotherapy platforms is now
transitioning to a key operational scale-up phase as the company’s
pipeline advances. I believe I can make a significant impact and
execute the ambitious growth strategy Ted and the Oncorus Board
have articulated, including the buildout of the company’s
manufacturing capabilities.”
Mr. Harbin brings more than 30 years of diverse operational
experience in biotech, pharmaceuticals and in-vitro diagnostics. He
has served in a variety of senior business and operational
leadership roles, including 15 years at the executive committee
level, for both publicly and privately held companies based in
Europe and the U.S. Most recently, Mr. Harbin served as a
consultant to several early stage biotech companies in the
Cambridge community, providing strategic counsel related to
operational scale-up challenges.
Prior to that, Mr. Harbin served in several executive committee
roles at Moderna, Inc. for six years as a Senior Vice President,
joining the company when it was still at an early phase. Throughout
his tenure at Moderna, Mr. Harbin was a key driver of the company’s
successful growth strategy, overseeing clinical and non-clinical
manufacturing operations, supply chain, facilities and human
resources. Mr. Harbin retired from Moderna in 2019, shortly after
the company’s initial public offering.
Before joining Moderna, Mr. Harbin was based in France and held
the position of Senior Vice President, Global Operations at
bioMérieux SA, where he managed over 3,500 employees responsible
for multiple highly-regulated global functions, including
regulatory, information technology, internal control and quality,
and all 15 of the company’s global manufacturing sites. In addition
to his operational duties, Mr. Harbin also held two board-level
positions in joint ventures in Japan and China.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Harbin held multiple leadership roles
within Eli Lilly and Company globally, where his responsibilities
spanned a variety of business and operations functions, including
finance, manufacturing, sales, human resources and people
development.
About Oncorus
At Oncorus, we are focused on driving innovation to deliver
next-generation viral immunotherapies to transform outcomes for
cancer patients. We are advancing a portfolio of intratumorally and
intravenously administered viral immunotherapies for multiple
indications with significant unmet needs based on our oncolytic
Herpes Simplex Virus (oHSV) Platform and Synthetic Virus Platform.
Designed to deliver next-generation viral immunotherapy impact, our
oHSV Platform improves upon key characteristics of this therapeutic
class to enhance potency without sacrificing safety, including
greater capacity to encode transgenes to drive systemic
immunostimulatory activity, retention of full replication
competency to enable high tumor-killing potency, and orthogonal
safety strategies to restrict viral activity in tumor cells. Our
lead oHSV program, ONCR-177, is designed to be directly
administered into a tumor, resulting in high local concentrations
of the therapeutic agent, as well as low systemic exposure to the
therapy, which we believe could potentially limit systemic
toxicities. Please visit us at www.oncorus.com to learn
more.
Cautionary Note Regarding
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within
the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995, as amended, including, without limitation, implied and
express statements regarding: expectations with respect to Oncorus’
ability to advance its clinical and pre-clinical pipelines,
including statements regarding the clinical development of
ONCR-177, expectations regarding upcoming milestones for its other
potential product candidates, as well as the therapeutic potential
and clinical benefits of Oncorus’ product candidates; Oncorus’
expectations with respect to its continued growth, including its
ability to expand its infrastructure and organization and its
ability to scale-up its platforms and buildout its manufacturing
capabilities; the ability of the leadership team to execute
Oncorus’ strategy and support its future growth; and statements
regarding the accomplishments, experience and capabilities of
individual members of Oncorus’ leadership team and the ability of
such qualities to drive Oncorus’ success. The words "may," “might,”
"will," "could," "would," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate,"
"intend," "believe," “expect,” "estimate," “seek,” "predict,"
“future,” "project," "potential," "continue," "target" and similar
words or expressions are intended to identify forward-looking
statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain
these identifying words. Any forward-looking statements in this
press release are based on management's current expectations and
beliefs and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and
important factors that may cause actual events or results to differ
materially from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking
statements contained in this press release, including, without
limitation, risks associated with: the impact of COVID-19 on
Oncorus’ operations and the timing and anticipated results of its
ongoing and planned clinical trials; the development of its
manufacturing capabilities and progression of its product
candidates into the operational scale-up phase; the risk that the
results of a clinical trial may not be predictive of future results
in connection with future clinical trials; Oncorus’s ability to
successfully demonstrate the safety and efficacy of ONCR-177 and
obtain regulatory approval; and Oncorus’ ability to obtain,
maintain and protect its intellectual property. These and other
risks and uncertainties are described in greater detail in the
section entitled "Risk Factors" in Oncorus’ Quarterly Report on
Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2020, which was
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission
on November 12, 2020, as well as discussions of potential
risks, uncertainties, and other important factors in the other
filings that Oncorus makes with the Securities and
Exchange Commission from time to time. These documents are
available under the “SEC filings” page of the Investors section of
Oncorus’s website at http://investors.oncorus.com.
Any forward-looking statements represent Oncorus’ views only as
of the date of this press release and should not be relied upon as
representing its views as of any subsequent
date. Oncorus explicitly disclaims any obligation to
update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise. No representations or
warranties (expressed or implied) are made about the accuracy of
any such forward-looking statements.
Investor Contact: |
Media Contact: |
Alan Lada |
Liz Melone |
Solebury Trout |
liz.melone@oncorus.com |
617-221-8006 |
|
alada@soleburytrout.com |
|
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1a8a7d16-f4b6-4a61-ae9f-50b332d79f23
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