WILMINGTON, Del., Nov. 04, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NiKang Therapeutics, an early stage biotech company focused on discovering and developing innovative small molecule oncology medicines to help patients with unmet medical needs, today announced the appointment of Y. Peter Li, Ph.D., MBA, as Chief Executive Officer and Board Director. Dr. Li has over 18 years of in-depth experience as a successful executive at innovative biotech companies with his most recent role as co-founder and founding CEO and Chairman for Turning Point Therapeutics, Inc.
“Peter’s broad knowledge and demonstrated success in biotech entrepreneurship, corporate financing and development, business development, and executive management are invaluable as we continue to build on the strong foundation of NiKang,” said Sean Cao, Board Director of NiKang. “We welcome Peter to the NiKang team, and look forward to leveraging his extensive experience and insights during this exciting and important period of growth for the company.”
“I am very delighted to join NiKang Therapeutics’ dedicated team of talented and experienced biopharmaceutical professionals. This is an exciting time at NiKang as we advance our unique oncology pipeline towards clinical trials. I look forward to working with the team and applying our collective expertise to advance and eventually deliver transformative medicines to cancer patients,” said Dr. Li.
Dr. Li is the co-founder and founding CEO of Turning Point Therapeutics, Inc. (TP), a clinical-stage biotech company. Dr. Li served as Chairman and CEO of TP from 2013 to 2018 and continued to serve as a Director until TP completed a successful $191 million IPO on Nasdaq in April 2019. As Chairman and CEO, Dr. Li led TP for 5 years and successfully raised 4 rounds of venture financing for $147 million in total from leading biotech investors. TP has built a strong pipeline with the lead compound Repotrectinib entering pivotal Phase 2 clinical trial and two additional projects expected to enter clinical development in 2019. Prior to TP, Dr. Li served as Executive Vice President at Epitomics, Inc., a leading antibody technology company specializing in rabbit monoclonal antibody development for reagent, diagnostics, and therapeutics. Prior to Epitomics, Dr. Li was Vice President at Kenson Ventures, LLC, where he served on Board of Directors and observers to the Board for biotech companies. He earned his M.B.A. from Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Ohio State University, where he was a University Presidential Fellow, and his B.S. from the University of Science and Technology of China.
About NiKang Therapeutics
NiKang Therapeutics is an early stage biotech company focused on discovering and developing innovative small molecule oncology medicines to help patients with unmet medical needs. Our target selection is driven by deep insights into disease biology and molecular pathways. Our discovery approach is informed by target structure biology and capitalizes on structure-based drug design. The successful implementation of our strategy enables us to rapidly and efficiently discover and advance proprietary drug candidates with the most desirable pharmacological features into clinical studies. We strive to bring transformative medicines to patients in need. For more information, please visit http://nikangtx.com/index.html
About CBC Group
CBC Group, formerly known as C-Bridge Capital, is a healthcare dedicated private equity firm, focused on growth and late stage, early stage and incubation opportunities across the healthcare industry. CBC Group is committed to supporting the commercialization of cutting-edge technologies and companies that fulfill unmet medical needs, thus continuously improving the standard and quality of care for patients. For more information, please visit http://www.cbridgecap.com/#/indexEng.
Contacts:
Media in US and Europe:
Mark Corbae
Senior Vice President
Westwicke PR
+1 (203) 682-8288
mark.corbae@icrinc.com
Media in China:
Edmond Lococo
Senior Vice President
ICR Asia
+86 (10) 6583-7510
edmond.lococo@icrinc.com
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c61d9da7-7d34-4638-9646-4fe93ec9ae97