On July 7, 2021 Adcendo, a biotech company developing innovative antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for the treatment of underserved cancers, reported the appointment of Michael Pehl as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) (Press release, ADCendo, JUL 7, 2021, View Source [SID1234584676]). Henrik Stage, co-founder of Adcendo, will move to the role of Chief Financial Officer.

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Michael Pehl has over 25 years of international biotechnology and oncology leadership experience in both the US and Europe. He joins Adcendo from GEMoaB, where he served as CEO and led the recent formation and launch of a globally leading allogeneic CAR-T company together with Blackstone Life Sciences and Intellia Therapeutics. Prior to this, he was CEO of Immunomedics Inc., leading the development of sacituzumab govitecan in metastatic triple negative breast cancer, which was approved in the U.S. in 2020. Immunomedics was acquired by Gilead in 2020 for $21 billion. Previously, Michael Pehl was President of Oncology at Celgene, responsible for the global commercial, clinical development, medical strategy and operations. His responsibilities included overseeing global clinical programs and commercial launches of several drugs including Lenalidomide (Revlimid), Pomalidomide (Pomalyst; Imnovid), Enasidenib (IDHIFA), Nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane) and Luspatercept (Reblozyl). Prior to this he held commercial leadership roles in Oncology and Nephrology at Amgen.

John Haurum, Chairman of the Board of Adcendo, said: "We are delighted to welcome Michael to Adcendo. This comes at a critical inflection point in Adcendo’s development and we are very pleased to have someone with such a unique blend of proven scientific and commercial experience, including taking drugs from bench to market, to build on the company’s momentum and help maximize the potential of our unique biologic insights and novel ADCs."

Michael Pehl, Chief Executive Officer of Adcendo, added: "I am incredibly excited to join Adcendo and help advancing our ADCs into the next wave of development. The company has a unique scientific understanding of its novel targets and I have been genuinely impressed by the progress achieved in such a short period since inception. I look forward to working with Henrik, the excellent team in Copenhagen and our Board to unlock the full potential of our science and bring a pipeline of next generation ADCs to underserved cancer patients."

These appointments follow the company’s recent EUR 51 million Series A round, which was one of the largest such financings for a Nordic biotech company. The company is working to bring the lead program targeting the novel cancer target uPARAP/Endo180 to proof of concept in patients. In addition to this program, Adcendo aims to build a pipeline of additional novel cancer targets ideally suited to ADC approaches.

On July 7, 2021 Aadi Bioscience, Inc. ("Aadi"), a privately-held clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on precision therapies for genetically-defined cancers with alterations in mTOR pathway genes, reported that Founder, Chief Executive Officer and President, Neil Desai, Ph.D., will present at the Ladenburg Thalmann 2021 Virtual Healthcare Conference on Tuesday, July 13, 2021 (Press release, Aadi Bioscience, JUL 7, 2021, View Source [SID1234584644]).

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Presentation Information:

Date: Tuesday, July 13, 2021

Time: 2:30 – 2:55 pm ET

Location: Track 2

The live webcast can be accessed here: View Source

On July 7, 2021 Scorpion Therapeutics, Inc., a next-generation oncology company developing best- and first-in-class precision medicines for cancer patients, reported that Dr. Axel Hoos will join the Company as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective August 2021 (Press release, Scorpion Therapeutics, JUL 7, 2021, View Source;utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=scorpion-therapeutics-announces-new-ceo-axel-hoos-m-d-ph-d [SID1234584661]). His leadership will help to deliver Scorpion’s ambitious vision to transform cancer care for many patients.

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"I’m excited to join Scorpion Therapeutics, which is set up to deliver precision medicine 2.0 with the potential to address many unmet needs in the current cancer treatment landscape" said Dr. Axel Hoos, M.D., Ph.D. "Scorpion’s unique capabilities in medicinal and computational chemistry, combined with chemical proteomics, enable rapid high-quality drug discovery and have led to a robust preclinical pipeline. I look forward to building a leading next-generation oncology company, with the goal of delivering best- and first-in-class medicines to many cancer patients."

Prior to Scorpion, Dr. Hoos served as Senior Vice President, R&D Governance Chair, and Therapeutic Area Head for oncology at GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (GSK). He was responsible for technical and funding decisions and re-built the oncology business after GSK’s 2015 divestment of oncology products to Novartis, across all therapeutic modalities in the focus areas of immuno-oncology, synthetic lethality, tumor cell targeting, epigenetics, and cell & gene therapy.

"Dr. Hoos is a distinguished physician-scientist, entrepreneur and business leader with substantial experience building visionary oncology programs to provide better medicines to patients with hard-to-treat diseases," said Scorpion founder, Keith Flaherty, M.D. "He shares Scorpion’s commitment to delivering best-in-class R&D, and is the ideal leader to guide the company as it advances its lead programs toward the clinic and expands the applications of its fully-integrated drug hunting engine."

Dr. Hoos is recognized as an immuno-oncology pioneer for his work on the development of the anti-CTLA-4 antibody ipilimumab, the first FDA-approved checkpoint immunotherapy, and the creation of a new development paradigm for cancer immunotherapies, which launched the field of immuno-oncology. Dr. Hoos serves as a member of the Board of Trustees at the Sabin Vaccine Institute, Co-Founder and Director on the Board at Imugene, Director on the Board of TCR2 and Member of the Executive Committee of the PACT Initiative of the Biden Cancer Moonshot. Additionally, at the Cancer Research Institute he serves as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board and Co-Director of the Cancer Immunotherapy Consortium.

"Scorpion is fortunate to benefit from his broad and deep scientific expertise in oncology, his leadership experience and his deep understanding of the patient experience," said Scorpion Board of Directors member Jean-Francois Formela, M.D. "I look forward to Dr. Hoos’ many insights and contributions as we continue to build Scorpion into a preeminent biotech company with a broad and diversified portfolio in oncology."

On July 7, 2021 Inceptor Bio, a Research Triangle Park, North Carolina-based cell and gene therapy biotechnology company, reported that it has launched FastBack Bio, the first of multiple next-generation cell and gene therapy platform companies that Inceptor Bio is building (Press release, Inceptor Bio, JUL 7, 2021, View Source [SID1234584677]).

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FastBack Bio’s core technology is the M-STIM platform, from which multiple co-stimulatory domains may be derived. M-STIM co-stimulatory domains are powerful modulators of T cell responses and endow CAR-T cells with a number of beneficial characteristics. In vitro data show that the first M-STIM co-stimulatory domain, M83, provides CAR-T cells with differentiated expansion kinetics and a balanced mix of effector memory and central memory phenotypes compared to CAR-T cells made with commonly used co-stimulatory domains including CD28 and 4-1BB. Additionally, M83-based CAR-T cells are resistant to exhaustion in vitro and exhibit an enhanced metabolism that may be beneficial in the tumor microenvironment (TME).

Dr. Mike Nicholson, Chief Science Officer at Inceptor Bio, said, "CAR-T therapy has demonstrated impressive results fighting liquid tumors, but the field hasn’t been as successful treating solid tumors. In murine models of renal cell carcinoma, M83-based CAR-T cells are far superior to CD28 or 4-1BB-based CAR-T cells. Those data, coupled with in vitro characterization, lead us to believe that M83-based CAR-T cells will be more efficacious against solid tumors."

FastBack Bio launches with technology licensed from Dr. Lishan Su’s laboratory at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Su earned his Ph.D. in virology from Harvard and held a post-doctoral position in immunology and stem cell biology at Stanford. Dr. Su spent 24 years at UNC Chapel Hill, with appointments in the UNC Lineberger Cancer Center and the Department of Microbiology & Immunology. In October 2020, he was appointed Head of the Maryland Institute of Human Virology.

Dr. Su, who will continue to support development of the M83 platform through sponsored research and as an advisor to FastBack Bio, said, "I am excited to support FastBack Bio as an Inceptor Bio portfolio company. FastBack Bio will have access to world-class facilities and a team with an exceptional track record that will allow us to accelerate the development of T cell-based therapeutics with our novel co-stimulatory domain."

Abe Maingi, Co-Founder, Board Member, and VP of Business Operations at Inceptor Bio, noted, "At Inceptor Bio, we are committed to building therapeutic companies with the leading innovators in cell and gene therapy to progress treatments that have potential to cure difficult-to-treat cancers. We are thrilled to announce that the University of North Carolina and Dr. Su are the first partners in our mission to advance cell and gene therapies to cure cancer."

Inceptor Bio was established to pursue a diversified portfolio of cell therapy platforms across multiple cell types, including CAR-T, CAR-M, and NK/NKT, with novel mechanisms that enhance immune cell performance within the tumor microenvironment. Inceptor Bio has a new website at www.inceptor.bio to provide information on the company’s vision and activities.

On July 7, 2021 Agenus (NASDAQ: AGEN), an immuno-oncology company with an extensive pipeline of checkpoint antibodies, cell therapies, adjuvants, and vaccines designed to activate immune response to cancers and infections, reported that Steven O’Day, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Agenus, will participate in a panel discussion at the William Blair Biotech Focus Conference 2021 titled "Novel Mechanisms and Strategies for Addressing PD-(L)1 Refractory/Resistant Tumors (Press release, Agenus, JUL 7, 2021, View Source [SID1234584713])."

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The panel will take place on Wednesday, July 14, 2021, from 4:20 p.m. to 5:20 p.m. ET. The event will be webcast live and may be accessed on the Company’s website at View Source