SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., March 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- CytomX, a biotechnology company developing Probody therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, today announced the appointment of Rachel Humphrey, M.D., to its board of directors. Dr. Humphrey previously led immuno-oncology at AstraZeneca and prior to that was responsible for the clinical development of both Yervoy® (ipilmumab) at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Nexavar® (sorafenib) at Bayer.
"Rachel is a foremost authority in oncology clinical development, with a demonstrated ability to advance novel therapeutics that provide tremendous benefit to patients," said Sean McCarthy, D. Phil., chief executive officer of CytomX. "Her deep experience in immuno-oncology and other therapeutic modalities will be invaluable to CytomX as we progress our wholly-owned pipeline of Precision Cancer Immunotherapies and Probody Drug Conjugates to the clinic."
Added Dr. Humphrey, "Probody technology stood out to me as a unique and highly innovative way to unlock the full potential of therapeutic antibodies. The Probody platform has the potential to enable the next generation of immuno-oncology therapeutics, first-in-class monotherapies and combinations, expand the target space for antibody drug conjugates as well as to improve targeting of bispecifics and engineered T-cell therapeutics. I look forward to working with the CytomX board and management team to help realize the company's vision of creating safer, more effective therapies."
Dr. Humphrey recently served as senior vice president and head of immuno-oncology at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals. In this capacity, she was responsible for leading the therapeutic area's strategy and oversaw all aspects of the development of its PD-L1 inhibitor (MEDI4736), tremelimumab and the combination. Before this, she was executive vice president and chief medical officer at Mirati Therapeutics, where she helped advance multiple assets through early stage clinical investigation. Prior to Mirati, she served as vice president of product development at Bristol-Myers Squibb. In this capacity, she led all aspects of the clinical development of Yervoy through the submission of global biologics license applications (BLA) and to global launch. Dr. Humphrey also held multiple positions in development at Bayer, where she supervised clinical development of Nexavar for treatment of renal cell carcinoma. She began her career as an oncology fellow and staff physician at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Humphrey received her medical doctorate from Case Western Reserve University and received her bachelor's degree from Harvard University.
About CytomX Therapeutics
CytomX Therapeutics develops Probody therapeutics for the treatment of cancer. Probodies are masked antibodies that remain inert in healthy tissue but are activated specifically in the disease microenvironment. The Probody approach is designed to blunt systemic toxicities associated with antibodies and expand the therapeutic window of these drugs, unlocking new therapeutic targets. The Company is initially focusing this highly innovative platform to discover and develop new immunotherapy and antibody drug conjugate therapies to treat areas of major unmet medical need in oncology. CytomX has attracted multiple strategic collaborations with industry-leading pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer Inc., ImmunoGen and Bristol-Myers Squibb. CytomX is led by a seasoned and proven management team and is financed by leading life science investors, including Third Rock Ventures, Canaan Partners, Roche Venture Fund and Pfizer Venture Investments. For more information, please visit www.cytomx.com.
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