Clinical-stage immuno-oncology startup Arch Oncology has hired three new executives, bolstering its C-suite just months after it raised $105 million to accelerate development of its lead drug candidate.
The startup this week said it made hires for the three newly created roles of chief medical officer, senior vice president of clinical development and senior vice president of clinical operations. The appointments include:
- Louie Naumovski, chief medical officer. Naumovski, who is a physician-scientist, most recently was group medical director of oncology early development and a clinical research fellow at North Chicago, Illinois-based phrenetical research and development company AbbVie.
- Amit Agarwal, senior vice president of clinical development. Agarwal most recently was multiple myeloma global disease lead at global biopharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb.
- Steve DeMattos, senior vice president of clinical operations. DeMattos joins Arch Oncology after having been vice president of clinical operations at Monrovia, California-based Xencor, which is developing antibody drug candidates.
Arch Oncology operates out of Brisbane, California, and St. Louis. It has its scientific research laboratory locally at the BioSTL Building in the Cortex innovation district. The startup is developing biologic therapies designed to treat patients with solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. It’s lead drug candidate, AO-176, is an anti-CD47 therapy for cancer patients, and is currently in Phase 1/2 clinical trials. The company is also developing a pipeline of antibody programs to treat cancer.
“We are delighted to welcome Louie, Amit and Steve to Arch. With their appointments, we continue to build a world-class team to support our pipeline of biologic programs for the treatment of cancer, and further position the company as a leader in the CD47 space,” Laurence Blumberg, president and CEO of Arch Oncology, said in a statement. “Their unique combination of oncology expertise in solid and hematologic malignancies across early and later stages of development, as well as their research experience and demonstrated excellence in clinical operations, make these hires a tremendous asset for Arch.”
The company said Naumovski and DeMattos will based in Brisbane and Agarwal in New York.
The expansion of Arch Oncology’s leadership comes after a raise of $105 million in Series C financing in April to advance clinical efforts on its lead drug candidate. In February, the 30-person startup said it inked a clinical trial collaboration and supply agreement with New Jersey-based Merck to assess AO-176 in combination with Merck’s cancer drug KEYTRUDA for patients with select solid tumors.
“We plan to continue to expand the clinical program of our differentiated anti-CD47 product candidate AO-176, beyond our current Phase 1/2 clinical trials for solid tumors, both as a monotherapy and in combination with paclitaxel or pembrolizumab (KEYTRUDA), and multiple myeloma as a monotherapy and with standard therapies,” Blumberg said.
