QBiotics appoints world class Clinical Advisory Board
BRISBANE, 12 September 2024
- Leading global clinical oncology experts appointed to QBiotics’ newly established Clinical Advisory Board (CAB).
- CAB to be chaired by Professor Alexander Eggermont, MD, PhD with members including leading experts in oncology and drug development, Professor Aurelien Marabelle, Professor Kevin Harrington, Professor Ignacio Melero, Dr Edmund Bartlett, Dr Jason Luke and Dr Alan Barge.
- CAB to provide expert guidance and strategic advice for QBiotics’ human clinical oncology programme.
QBiotics Group Limited (QBiotics) is very pleased to announce the establishment of a Clinical Advisory Board (CAB) with the appointment of leading global clinical oncology experts to its membership. The CAB will provide QBiotics with clinical insight and strategic advice to guide the ongoing direction and strategic outlook for its human clinical oncology programme.
The CAB will be chaired by Professor Alexander Eggermont, MD, PhD, who brings more than 37 years of experience in oncology, specialising in clinical immunotherapy, melanoma, sarcoma, drug development and translational tumour immunology. Prof. Eggermont is the Chief Scientific Officer of Princess Máxima Center for Paediatric Oncology, a Professor of Clinical and Translational Immunotherapy at University Medical Center, Utrecht, Netherlands and is the Coordinator of the Comprehensive Cancer Center Program Deutsche KrebsHilfe, Germany and on the Board of Directors of the Comprehensive Cancer Center Munich, the Technical University Munich and the Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich Germany. Strategic Advisor for DKFZ-NCT Heidelberg for National Center for Tumors Program, Germany. He was previously the Director General of Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus Grand Paris, France and has served as President of ECCO (European CanCer Organization), President of the EORTC (European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer), was a member of the Board of Directors of ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology), on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, and is currently Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Cancer.
Prof. Eggermont has published more than 1000 peer-reviewed scientific publications and his expertise has been acknowledged by many professional awards throughout his career. He was elevated to the status of Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development on 1 January 2015.
Joining Prof. Eggermont on the Clinical Advisory Board are leading experts in oncology and drug development, Professor Aurelien Marabelle, Professor Kevin Harrington, Professor Ignacio Melero, Dr Edmund Barlett, Dr Jason Luke and Dr Alan Barge.
Professor Aurelien Marabelle, MD, PhD is a senior oncologist and an investigator within the Drug Development Department (DITEP) of Gustave Roussy Cancer Center, Paris. He is also a Professor of Clinical Immunology at the University of Paris Sarclay, France. His clinical practice is devoted to early phase clinical trials of cancer immunotherapies for all types of cancers. Professor Marabelle is also the Director of the Clinical Investigation Center BIOTHERIS, dedicated to intratumoral immunotherapies. Professor Marabelle was initially trained as a scientist in the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon and King’s College London and as a clinician at the Léon Bérard Cancer Center in Lyon, France. He did a post-doctoral research fellowship in the laboratory of Professor Ronald Levy at Stanford University, California where he returned in 2021 as a visiting professor. He is an active member of ESMO, ASCO, AACR, SITC, EATI; he was the co-founder and is the current vice-president of the French Society for Cancer Immunotherapies (FITC). Professor Marabelle has published more than 250 peer-reviewed publications and has an H-index of 62.
Professor Kevin Harrington, FRCP, FRCR, FRSB, PhD (Professor in Biological Cancer Therapies) is a Senior Investigator at the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the Head of Division of Radiotherapy and Imaging at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) / Royal Marsden Hospital (RMH). He is the Director for the ICR/RMH CRUK RadNet Centre of Excellence. His research interests include immunotherapy, targeted radiation sensitisers and oncolytic virotherapy and related directly injected agents. In oncolytic virotherapy, he has led in developing DNA (HSV [talimogene laherparepvec, RP1, RP2 and RP3 viruses] and vaccinia virus) and RNA viruses (Reovirus type 3 Dearing, coxsackievirus A21, Maraba and Newcastle Disease virus) in the lab and the clinic. He received the 2019 British Association of Head and Neck Oncology President’s Achievement Award and was the 2021 Semon Lecturer (Royal Society of Medicine), the 2023 Elia Lecturer (Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and University of Toronto) and the 2024 Tata Orator (Tata Medical Centre, Kolkata). Professor Harrington has published more than 600 peer-reviewed publications and over 50 book chapters. He was listed as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Professor Ignacio Melero, MD, PhD (University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain and University of Oxford, UK) brings more than 36 years of experience in the fields of immunology and immunotherapy and has been the Co-director of the Immunology and Immunotherapy Service at Clinic University of Navarra since 2015. His lines of research focus on cancer immunology and immunotherapy with a translational approach from experimental models to clinical trials. He has conducted more than 60 clinical trials as principal investigator. Professor Melero is deputy editor of the journal Clinical Cancer Research, scientific editor of Cancer Discovery, associate editor of the journal Frontiers in Immunology and section editor of the Journal for Immunotherapy of Cancer (JITC). He is a member of the Editorial Board Member of the scientific journals Immunotherapy, Autoimmunity, Oncoimmunology, Journal of Translational Medicine, World Journal of Immunology, Cancer Immunology Research and Cancer Research. He is a member of the external advisory boards of the Curie Institute (Paris), Gustave Roussy Institute, Biomedical Research Institute of Granada and Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI).
Edmund Bartlett, MD is an assistant attending surgeon in the Gastric and Mixed Tumor Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, where he focuses on the treatment of patients with cutaneous malignancy and sarcoma. Dr. Bartlett is a clinical and translational surgeon-scientist with a particular interest in improving the sensitivity of immunotherapeutics for patients with sarcoma. He currently serves as the co-principal investigator (PI) on a trial combining PD-1 and adenosine receptor inhibition for patients with dedifferentiated liposarcoma, the PI on an ongoing trial combining pembrolizumab and isolated limb infusion of melphalan and dactinomycin for patients with extremity sarcoma (NCT04332874), and as the PI on a trial exploring the early efficacy of intratumorally-injected tigilanol tiglate in patients with soft tissue sarcoma (NCT05755113).
Jason Luke, MD - UPMC Hilman Cancer Center and University of Pittsburg, is one of the foremost clinical-translational investigators in immune-oncology and an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, as well as Director of the Immunotherapy and Drug Development Center and Associate Director for Clinical Research at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. Dr. Luke has been a lead investigator on clinical trials of immunotherapy agents including but not limited to novel immune-checkpoints, bispecific antibodies, innate immune-modifiers and oncolytic viruses, immune-metabolism as well as cellular therapies in solid tumors. Dr. Luke conceived of and was the principal investigator for the KEYNOTE-716 trial that changed the landscape of stage II melanoma oncology and underpinned the FDA and EMA approval of pembrolizumab in this setting. He is an insightful and well-respected voice across the spectrum of academia, industry and investment communities.
Alan Barge, MD, trained in medicine at Oxford and London and specialised in the treatment of leukaemia and bone-marrow transplantation. Dr. Barge joined the American biotechnology company Amgen in 1990, as European Medical Director and was responsible for the worldwide development of Neupogen® (filgrastim), in patients with cancer and leukaemia, as well as HIV and infectious disease. In 1999 Dr Barge joined AstraZeneca, managing early phase oncology drug development taking many new drugs into first-in-human trials, and lead the development of Gefitinib (Iressa®) and Olaparib (Lynparza®). In 2003 he was appointed VP of Clinical and Head of Oncology and Infection, responsible for building and managing a large development group, and the execution of AstraZeneca’s oncology portfolio globally. Dr Barge left AstraZeneca in 2011 and co-founded ASLAN Pharmaceuticals, a Singapore-based biopharmaceutical company which focused on Asia-prevalent cancers. In 2016 he helped found Carrick Therapeutics in the UK, which also focuses on early-stage oncology assets.
QBiotics’ Executive Chair, Dr Susan Foden commented, “We are delighted and privileged to be able to benefit from the wisdom of such an accomplished and high calibre group of clinical experts in our strategic Clinical Advisory Board and look forward to working with them. This esteemed panel will provide invaluable insight and guidance as we navigate the complexities of drug development in oncology. By bringing together this team of world-leading oncologists, researchers and pharmaceutical industry professionals, we aim to enhance our strategic direction and the clinical development pathways available across QBiotics’ programmes.”
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FURTHER INFORMATION
DR VICTORIA GORDON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR STRATEGIC ALLIANCES AND INVESTOR RELATIONS
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ABOUT QBIOTICS
QBiotics is an unlisted public Australian life sciences company that specialises in the discovery and development of novel cell signalling small molecules. QBiotics applies phenotypic screening to generate breakthrough innovation in the discovery of first in class solutions to challenging medical conditions. Our current clinical focus is on novel treatments for cancer and debilitating chronic wounds.
QBiotics’ lead oncology drug, tigilanol tiglate, is a small molecule targeting a range of solid tumours and is currently in human clinical Phase II development treating soft tissue sarcomas and head and neck cancers. A veterinary formulation of tigilanol tiglate is registered and marketed as an oncology pharmaceutical, under the trade name STELFONTA®, in the USA, Europe, the UK and Australia.
QBiotics’ lead wound healing drug candidate, EBC 1013 is a small molecule targeting a range of wounds including chronic and acute wounds and burns. EBC-1013 is currently in Phase I development treating venous leg ulcers.