Paul Frohna brings over 15 years of experience in translational medicine and clinical and regulatory strategy
Marseille, France, 18 July 2019 – ImCheck Therapeutics, a biotech company on the cutting edge of the next wave of immunotherapies against cancer and autoimmune diseases, announced today the appointment of Paul Frohna MD, PhD, PharmD as its Chief Medical Officer, a newly created position. Dr. Frohna is a physician-scientist with over 15 years of experience in the biotech industry and with expertise in translational medicine, clinical trial design and clinical and regulatory strategy.
Before joining ImCheck, Dr. Frohna was Chief Medical Officer at Bioniz Therapeutics, where he led clinical and regulatory affairs functions and was responsible for the operational oversight of the Company's clinical programs in T-cell leukemia and lymphoma as well as autoimmune diseases. Prior to this role, he was the Vice President of Clinical Development and Translational Medicine at Receptos Inc., which was acquired by Celgene in 2015. At Receptos, he led the successful Phase 2 trials of ozanimod in multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease. Prior to Receptos, Dr. Frohna served as the Chief Medical Officer of ProFibrix, Inc. where he led the successful Raplixa™ clinical program, and before that he held senior clinical development positions at Fibrogen and at Genentech where he patented and initially tested the therapeutic approach of B-cell depleting therapy for relapsing and progressive multiple sclerosis. Dr. Frohna currently serves as an independent director on the board of Bionure SL, a Barcelona-based biotech developing novel neuroprotective agents.
Over the course of his career, Dr. Frohna has built and led departments and teams responsible for candidate selection, IND/CTA filings, Phase I to III clinical trials and global development partnerships. He has successfully designed and initiated translational and clinical programs for biologics, small molecules and stem cells across multiple therapeutic areas including immunology, hematology, and oncology. He played critical roles in multiple development programs including Receptos' ozanimod, Profibrix’s Raplixa and Genentech's Rituxan, Tarceva and Raptiva programs.
“We are delighted to welcome Paul to ImCheck as our Chief Medical Officer. He has an amazing track record of successful drug development with immunotherapies and he will lead ImCheck’s transition into a clinical stage biotechnology company. We will benefit from his extensive experience as we advance our programs towards the clinic by early 2020. Paul will also play an important role with his strong translational medicine background to contribute to our novel discovery research programs,” said Pierre d’Epenoux, CEO of ImCheck Therapeutics.
“ I am very excited to join ImCheck as CMO at this key inflection point in the company’s evolution,” added Paul Frohna. “ ImCheck is in a unique position with its lead first-in-class antibody that is rapidly progressing towards the clinic which is followed by a robust pipeline of exciting antibody discovery programs addressing novel targets in immuno-oncology and auto-immunity. I am looking forward to working together with the management, Board of Directors and the excellent scientific team at ImCheck to bring these innovative antibodies to patients with significant unmet medical needs. ”
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About IMCHECK THERAPEUTICS
ImCheck Therapeutics is designing and developing a new generation of immunotherapy antibodies positioned at the crossroads of two high-potential immunological fields: g9d2 T cells and a novel super-family of immunomodulators, butyrophilins.
Due to their mechanism of action, and notably their ability to simultaneously modulate innate and adaptive immunity, ImCheck's “first-in-class" activating antibodies may be able to produce superior clinical results as compared the first-generation of immune checkpoint inhibitors and when used in combination overcome the resistance to this group of agents. In addition, preclinical experiments with antagonist antibodies have demonstrated potential as treatments for a wide-range of autoimmune diseases.
Co-founder of the Marseille Immunopole cluster, ImCheck benefits from support from Prof. Daniel Olive (INSERM, CNRS, Institut Paoli Calmettes, Aix-Marseille Université), a worldwide leader in gd T cells and butyrophilins research, from the experience of an expert management team and from the commitment of leading European investors.
For further information: www.imchecktherapeutics.com and @ImCheckThx
Press contacts ATCG-PARTNERS France Marie PUVIEUX: +33 (0)9 81 87 46 72 International Ana-Maria LEON-ORTIZ: +33 (0)7 71 82 12 29 imcheck@atcg-partners.com
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