NEW HAVEN, Conn., Oct. 02, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arvinas, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARVN), a biotechnology company creating a new class of drugs based on targeted protein degradation, announced that six new thought leaders will join the company’s scientific advisory board (SAB). The new members are Tomasz M. Beer, M.D., F.A.C.P., Adam L. Boxer, M.D., Ph.D., Sara Courtneidge, Ph.D., Lennart Mucke, M.D., Benjamin G. Neel, M.D., Ph.D., and Lillian L. Siu, M.D.
“The past year was an inflection point full of significant milestones as we advanced two PROTAC® protein degraders into the clinic,” said John Houston, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Arvinas. “Over the next year we will share our first-in-human data from a clinical trial of a targeted protein degrader and continue to progress our neurodegeneration PROTAC® programs. Our scientific advisory board has been critical to the advancement of the Arvinas portfolio, and we believe the contributions of this talented group of advisors will be invaluable as we move forward.”
The Full Arvinas Scientific Advisory Board:
Craig Crews, Ph.D. - Chair
Nearly 20 years ago, Dr. Craig Crews, Ph.D., began developing PROTAC® protein degraders and is the pioneer in the field of targeted protein degradation. Dr. Crews is the Founder of Arvinas, as well as the John C. Malone Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Chemistry and Pharmacology at Yale University.
Tomasz M. Beer, M.D., F.A.C.P.
Dr. Tomasz M. Beer, M.D., F.A.C.P. brings deep knowledge and interest in oncology clinical trials and is an internationally renowned prostate cancer researcher and clinician. Dr. Beer serves as the Grover C. Bagby Endowed Chair for Prostate Cancer Research and is a Professor of Medicine for the Division of Hematology & Medical Oncology and Deputy Director of the Oregon Health & Science University Knight Cancer Institute, an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. He leads the Prostate Cancer Research Program and serves as Chief Medical Officer for the Center for Early Detection Advanced Research, both at the Knight Cancer Institute. Dr. Beer has published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles on prostate cancer and is particularly known for contributions to the development of new treatments for advanced prostate cancer. Dr. Beer is a member of the SAB at Salarius Pharmaceuticals Inc., and recently served as a member of the SAB at Pelican Therapeutics, Inc.
Adam L. Boxer, M.D., Ph.D.
Adam L. Boxer, M.D., Ph.D., has focused his career on developing new treatments and biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases, particularly those involving tau and TDP-43. He is the Endowed Professor in Memory and Aging in the Department of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He directs UCSF’s Neurosciences Clinical Research Unit and the Alzheimer’s Disease and Frontotemporal Degeneration (FTD) Clinical Trials Program at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. He is the principal investigator of the Advancing Research and Treatment for FTLD (ARTFL) Rare Disease Clinical Research Consortium, a collaborative project funded by the National Institutes of Health to create an 18-center North American research network to support the development of new therapies for FTLD. He also leads the Four Repeat Tauopathy Neuroimaging Initiative (4RTNI), a multicenter, longitudinal tau PET and biomarker study focused on Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) and corticobasal degeneration (CBD). He co-chairs the FTLD Treatment Study Group (FTSG), and the PSP Research Roundtable, both academic-industry collaborative groups focused on therapeutic development.
Sara Courtneidge, Ph.D., D.Sc.
Dr. Sara A. Courtneidge, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Cell, Developmental & Cancer Biology, a member of the Knight Cancer Institute, and a member of the Center for Spatial Systems Biomedicine at Oregon Health & Science University. Dr. Courtneidge’s laboratory has studied the Src family of protein tyrosine kinases for a number of years. She also retains an interest in translational research, with the goal of defining novel therapeutic points of intervention for cancer treatment. Dr. Courtneidge’s contributions to cancer research have been recognized with numerous honors, including election to the European Molecular Biology Organization, the Jubilee Lecture and Harden Medal of the British Biochemical Society, the Feodor Lynen Lecture and Lynen Medal, an honorary doctorate from the University of Leeds, and, most recently, the 2015 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Women in Cancer Research Charlotte Friend Memorial Lectureship, awarded to a scientist who has made impressive achievements in cancer research and has served as an outstanding leader to others. Dr. Courtneidge has been a Professor and Director of The Cell Adhesion and Extracellular Matrix Program for The Burnham Institute and served as Distinguished Scientific Investigator, Signal Regulation and Cancer, at the Van Andel Research Institute in Grand Rapids, MI. Previously, Dr. Courtneidge was Chief Scientist and Vice President of Research at SUGEN, Inc. She has served on the SABs of Crown Bioscience and TargeGen Inc.
Benjamin G. Neel, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Neel has strong experience in oncology, cancer cell signaling pathways, the role of pathway mutations, and their effects on disease development and cancer genomics. He serves as a Professor of Medicine at NYU School of Medicine and Director of Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone Health. Prior to joining NYU Langone, he served as Director of Princess Margaret Cancer Center at University Health Network, which includes the Ontario Cancer Institute and Campbell Family Cancer Research Institute. Dr. Neel also was Willian B. Castle Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is a Founder of Northern Biologics Inc. and previously served as a member of the Board of Directors. He is also a Founder of Navire Pharma, Inc., and the Chair of its Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Neel previously served as a Director of the AACR and currently is on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Cancer Institutes. He is also was member of Medical Advisory Board of the Gairdner Foundation.
Lennart Mucke, M.D.
Dr. Mucke’s research focuses on processes that result in memory loss and other major neurological deficits, with an emphasis on Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders. He has generated informative experimental models of these conditions and used them to identify novel strategies to prevent neurological decline. Dr. Mucke is the founding Director of the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease where he created a leading program for research and training in disease-focused neuroscience. He is also the Joseph B. Martin Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience and a Professor of Neurology at the UCSF. He has joint appointments in UCSF’s Neuroscience, Biomedical Sciences, and Medical Scientist (M.D./Ph.D.) Graduate Training Programs. Dr. Mucke is a member of the American Neurological Association, the Association of American Physicians and the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives. He has served on the National Advisory Council on Aging for the National Institutes of Health and chaired the Senate of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE).
Lillian L. Siu, M.D.
Dr. Lillian Siu is a senior medical oncologist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and a Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She is the Co-Principal Investigator of the OICR-supported Ontario-wide Cancer Targeted Nucleic Acid Evaluation (OCTANE) study. Dr. Siu is the Director of the Phase I Program and Co-Director of the Bras and Family Drug Development Program at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, holds the BMO Chair in Precision Cancer Genomics, and is the clinical lead for the Tumor Immunotherapy Program at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, where she has been leading genomics initiatives and immuno-oncology trials. Dr. Siu served on the Board of Directors for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) for a four-year term (2012-2016). She also served as a member of the Nomination Committee for the AACR (2014-2016). She currently serves on the AACR Board of Directors for a three-year term (2017-2020).
About Arvinas
Arvinas is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to improving the lives of patients suffering from debilitating and life-threatening diseases through the discovery, development, and commercialization of therapies that degrade disease-causing proteins. Arvinas uses its proprietary technology platform to engineer proteolysis-targeting chimeras, or PROTAC® targeted protein degraders, that are designed to harness the body’s own natural protein disposal system to selectively and efficiently degrade and remove disease-causing proteins. The company’s initial clinical program, ARV-110 for the treatment of patients with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer, began a Phase 1 clinical trial in the first quarter of 2019. A Phase 1 clinical study of ARV-471, in development for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic ER positive / HER2 negative breast cancer, began in in the third quarter of 2019. For more information, visit www.arvinas.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve substantial risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding the development and regulatory status of our product candidates, including the timing of data from our clinical trials. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, contained in this press release, including statements regarding our strategy, future operations, prospects, plans and objectives of management, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “predict,” “project,” “target,” “potential,” “will,” “would,” “could,” “should,” “continue,” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words.
We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. Actual results or events could differ materially from the plans, intentions and expectations disclosed in the forward-looking statements we make as a result of various risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to: whether we will be able to successfully conduct Phase 1 clinical trials for ARV-110 and ARV-471, complete our clinical trials for our product candidates, and receive results from our clinical trials on our expected timelines, or at all, whether our cash resources will be sufficient to fund our foreseeable and unforeseeable operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements, our expected timeline and other important factors discussed in the “Risk Factors” sections contained in our quarterly and annual reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release reflect our current views with respect to future events, and we assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required by applicable law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this release.
Contacts for Arvinas
Investors
Will O’Connor, Stern Investor Relations
ir@arvinas.com
Media
Cory Tromblee, ScientPR
pr@arvinas.com
Source: Arvinas Inc.
