MISGAV, Israel, Nov. 25, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Biond Biologics Ltd. (“Biond” or the “Company”), a privately-held Israeli biotech company, developing novel immunotherapies for cancer and a platform enabling the intracellular delivery of biologics, today announced that Alan Korman, Ph.D., will join the company’s Scientific Advisory Board as its chairman.
“We are thrilled to have Alan join our advisory board, and look forward to his contributions,” said Tehila Ben Moshe, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Biond. “Alan is a pioneer in the field of immunotherapy who has contributed immensely to the industry’s efforts to target immune evasion mechanisms employed by tumors. We are confident that Alan’s expertise and experience in drug discovery will prove invaluable for Biond as we further progress our innovative immuno-oncology programs, including BND-22, our first-in-class, multi-cell checkpoint inhibitor targeting ILT2.”
Dr. Korman said, “I look forward to working closely with the team at Biond, an innovative company developing medicines with the potential to transform cancer patient care. We have only started to understand the potential role of the immune system in eliminating malignant cells and I look forward to assisting Biond in realizing this potential.”
Dr. Korman is currently Senior Vice President of Human Immunology at Vir Biotechnology. Previously, he was Vice President for Immuno-Oncology Discovery at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), where he led the development of biologics for tumor immunotherapy. Prior to BMS, he held various positions at Medarex. During his tenures at BMS and Medarex, he was closely involved in the seminal development of two approved breakthrough drugs for oncology, ipilimumab (anti-CTLA-4) and nivolumab (anti-PD-1) and their combination, pioneering the approach of immune checkpoint blockade. Dr. Korman received his Ph.D. in Cellular and Developmental Biology from Harvard University and was a Whitehead Fellow at the Whitehead Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was also a staff scientist at the Institut Pasteur prior to moving to the biotechnology sector.
With the appointment of Dr. Korman, Biond's Scientific Advisory Board consists of four members:
- Alan Korman, Ph.D., Senior Vice President of Human Immunology at Vir Biotechnology and former Vice President of Immuno-Oncology Discovery at Bristol-Myers Squibb
- Jeff Weber, M.D., Ph.D., Deputy Director, Perlmutter Cancer Center, NYU Langone Medical Center
- Pavel Pisa, M.D., Ph.D., former Head of Translational Medicine, Roche
- Gal Markel, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Scientist, Ella Lemelbaum Institute of Immuno-Oncology, Sheba Medical Center
About Biond Biologics
Biond Biologics is a drug discovery and development company focused on the field of immunotherapy, combining excellent science and out-of-the-box innovative thinking. Biond aims to translate high quality science into therapies for disease with unmet medical needs by developing innovative drugs and establishing collaborations with leading pharma companies. Biond’s pipeline is based on internal research of newly discovered immune-checkpoints and immune-evasion mechanisms. Biond’s leading pre-clinical development programs include BND-22, a first-in-class multi-cell checkpoint inhibitor targeting ILT2, and BION-206, a novel agent developed for overcoming PD-1 blockade resistance by targeting soluble CD28; an immune evasion mechanism recently discovered by Biond scientists.
In addition to its pipeline of immunotherapy agents, Biond is developing an innovative and robust technological platform that enables the intracellular delivery of biologic agents, mainly antibodies, into cells. Biond anticipates that its biologics delivery platform will feed its growing pipeline, enabling the development of drugs aimed at highly potent intracellular targets, currently regarded as undruggable.
About BND-22
BND-22 is a humanized IgG4, antagonist antibody targeting the Ig-like transcript 2 (ILT2) receptor in development for the treatment of solid tumors. ILT2, a member of the ILT family of immuno-modulating receptors, is an inhibitory receptor expressed on both innate and adaptive immune cells that binds HLA-G, an immunosuppressive protein expressed by multiple tumor types. ILT2-mediated inhibition can lead to impairment of immune cell proliferation, differentiation, phagocytosis, cytotoxicity, cytokine secretion and chemotaxis identifying the ILT2 signaling axis as a potential novel target for anti-cancer immunotherapy. The safety, tolerability, and anti-tumor activity of BND-22 will be explored in a first-in-human clinical trial in cancer patients with tumor types known to express HLA-G.
Company contact:
Itay Friedman, MD
VP Clinical Development
Biond Biologics Ltd.
+972-4 884 4337
Itay@biondbio.com