SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Sept. 17, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq:FPRX), a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing novel protein therapeutics for cancer and inflammatory diseases, today announced the appointment of Robert Sikorski, M.D., Ph.D., as Vice President of Global Clinical Development. Dr. Sikorski will oversee the global clinical development activities for Five Prime's product candidates.
"Dr. Sikorski brings extensive expertise in oncology research and drug development to his role at Five Prime and we look forward to his contributions as we advance and expand our clinical pipeline," said Julie Hambleton, M.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. "Given his past experience with checkpoint inhibitors and other immune-modulating approaches, he will be instrumental in leading our clinical programs, including in cancer immunotherapy."
Dr. Sikorski joins Five Prime from MedImmune (the Biologics Division of AstraZeneca, PLC) where he was Senior Director, Global Oncology Research and Development, leading the development of a portfolio of oncology therapeutics with a focus on immune-mediated mechanisms and supporting partnering efforts, including those related to assets targeting PD1, CTLA4, and OX40. Prior to that, he was Director, Global Oncology Research and Development at Amgen, where he led the development of several oncology drug candidates. His seminal work on panitumumab (now marketed as Vectibix®) led to the drug's approval with a first-in-class biomarker selection strategy based on KRAS genotype. In earlier positions, he served as a medical affairs consultant to Genzyme and as Chief Technology Officer at the biomedical data acquisition and analytics firm, Mednav, until acquisition. Dr. Sikorski received his M.D. and Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine through a Medical Scientist Training Program scholarship. He completed his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and an oncology fellowship at The Johns Hopkins Oncology Center, and is board certified in both oncology and internal medicine. Dr. Sikorski began his career as a Howard Hughes Research Fellow and Visiting Scientist at the National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate, Harold Varmus.
About Five Prime
Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc. discovers and develops innovative therapeutics to improve the lives of patients with serious diseases. Five Prime's comprehensive discovery platform, which encompasses virtually every medically relevant extracellular protein, positions it to explore pathways in cancer, inflammation and their intersection in cancer immunotherapy, an area of oncology with significant therapeutic potential and a growing focus of the company's R&D activities. Five Prime has entered into strategic collaborations with leading global pharmaceutical companies and has promising product candidates in clinical and late preclinical development. For more information, please visit www.fiveprime.com.
Vectibix is a registered trademark of Amgen.