iOnctura Expands its Clinical Advisory Board

Geneva, Switzerland, 4^th February 2020: iOnctura SA, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, developing a pipeline of next generation molecules targeting cancer and fibrosis, announces the addition of new members to its Clinical Advisory Board (CAB) with the appointment of Dr. Hendrik-Tobias Arkenau, Executive Medical Director, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, UK, and Dr. Jordi Rodón Ahnert, Clinical co-director MD Anderson Cancer Center.

These appointments come as the company is poised to enter clinical development of its lead product candidate and continues to evolve into a leading biotechnology company with a diverse and sustainable pipeline. The two new CAB members will add additional expertise in tumour immunology, translational research and clinical drug development with a focus on precision medicine in oncology.

On welcoming the new members to the CAB, Catherine Pickering, CEO of iOnctura commented: “We are delighted to have attracted these two world-renowned experts to our Clinical Advisory Board. Their collective knowledge and experience in the field of immunology and oncology, and specifically PI3Kδ, will help iOnctura prepare for the next stage of development and maximise the potential of our pipeline of oncology and fibrosis programs.

“Each member brings a wealth of experience in advancing oncology compounds from early to late stage clinical development and through to marketing approval, and the guidance we will receive will be invaluable as we move our first candidate into clinical development and first-in-human studies.”

Drs. Arkenau and Ahnert will join the CAB at the time the company is entering the clinic. iOnctura’s most advanced programme, IOA-244, is a clinical phase, next generation PI3Kδ inhibitor with a unique chemical structure, exquisite selectivity, excellent drug-like properties and an expected best-in-class safety profile. It is being developed as a novel targeted therapy for solid tumours that over express PI3Kδ and are burdened by immune-suppressive subtypes sensitive to PI3Kδ inhibition.

iOnctura’s second programme, IOA-289, is a novel autotaxin (ATX) inhibitor with superior potency compared to clinical-stage ATX inhibitors. IOA-289 is being developed as a first-in-class therapy for solid tumour indications that over express ATX and are burdened with cancer-associated fibrosis. IOA-289 has demonstrated anti-tumour and anti-fibrotic efficacy in preclinical models and is in advanced in vivo safety studies.