Numab builds out clinical advisory board with high profile appointments

Numab Therapeutics AG, a biopharmaceutical company developing next - generation multispecific antibody-based immunotherapies for cancer, today announced the appointments of Prof. Mario Sznol from Yale Cancer Center and Prof. David Hong from the MD Anderson Cancer Center to its clinical advisory board. They will join Dr. Ignacio Melero who was appointed in September last.

Mario Sznol , M.D., is a Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology). Dr. Sznol , formerly with the National Cancer Institute, has an international reputation in cancer drug development. Dr. Sznol's expertise and experience is in cancer immunotherapy, drug development for cancer, and treatment of patients with melanoma and renal cell carcinoma. He is working to expand the opportunities for clinical trials at the Yale Cancer Center, particularly those focusing on immunotherapy and novel agents.

David Hong, M.D., is a Professor of Medicine and the Associate Vice President of Clinical Research at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Throughout his career, Dr. Hong has developed an interest in studying the efficacy of novel drug combinations in patients with solid tumors. Recently his research endeavors have focused on developing personalized therapies for patients, whose tumors bear specific genetic mutations/amplifications and combining targeted therapies with immunotherapies.

Dr. Sznol commented: “I am pleased to join Numab’s advisory board. ND021 is an exciting, innovative product as it addresses clinically relevant limitations of checkpoint inhibitor combination approaches.”

Dr. Hong further added: “ND021 bears high potential to address unmet medical needs for many of our patients and I am looking forward to support the company in the clinical development of this compound.”

Peter Lichtlen, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer of Numab, said: “Mario and David will join Ignacio Melero who was appointed in September, 2018 , to further strengthen our clinical advisory board. Each of our clinical advisory board members has done seminal work in immunotherapy and has been involved in groundbreaking clinical trials. As we advance our lead compound to the clinic, their contribution will be invaluable, and we are grateful to collaborate with these eminent researchers and clinicians.”

Numab is advancing ND021, a PD-L1/ 4-1BB/HSA trispecific scDb-scFv, to the clinic. Animal data strongly suggest that ND021 should eliminate the tolerability/efficacy trade - off associated with stimulation of the costimulatory receptor 4-1BB , while eliciting best-in-class anti-tumor responses. ND021 leverages the Company’s next-generation multi-specific technology to elicit highly potent – but tumor-restricted – agonism of 4-1BB , while concomitantly blocking PD-L1. By establishing PD-L1-binding as a pre-requisite to initiating 4-1BB stimulation on immune effector cells, ND021 is designed to avoid dose-limiting hepatotoxicities associated with IgG-mediated 4-1BB agonism and at the same time triggers synergistic dual checkpoint modulation to maximize pharmacological activity in the tumor microenvironment.