Company raises $30 Million to allocate to pre-clinical pipeline development
LEXINGTON, MA – October 29, 2020 — Elpis Biopharmaceuticals today announced the closing of a $30 million Series A financing to propel solid tumor and hematological disease therapeutics through pre-clinical studies, which brings the company to a total of $40 million raised including seed funding. The investment is part of a new strategic partnership with a global pharmaceutical company.
Elpis Biopharmaceuticals also welcomes seasoned translational and clinical research investigator to the Scientific Advisory Board – Michael Atkins MD, Deputy Director of the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington, DC and Professor of Oncology and Medicine (Hematology/Oncology) at Georgetown University School of Medicine.
“We are excited to have this financial support as we continue to advance our pre-clinical assets,” said Yan Chen, President and Chief Executive Officer at Elpis Biopharmaceuticals. “We believe our biologics platforms enable us to discover and engineer better treatment options for cancer patients and look forward to continuing to grow and advance our pipeline into the clinic. Michael brings significant expertise in cancer immunotherapy from his distinguished tenure at leading medical institutions. We are looking forward to leveraging his expertise, as well as other scientific experts, to guide us as we bring effective treatment options to patients as soon as possible.”
Dr. Atkins is a leader in translational and clinical research. He began his career at Tufts Medical Center before moving to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and being appointed Professor at Harvard Medical School where he served as Deputy Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology and leader of the Biologic Therapy and Cutaneous Oncology Programs, as well as Co-PI of the Harvard Skin Cancer SPORE, leader of the Dana Farber Harvard Cancer Center Kidney Cancer Program and Director of the DF/HCC Kidney Cancer SPORE. In 2012, he became the Deputy Director of the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and William M. Scholl Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Oncology. He is the former president of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer and currently co-Chair of the Melanoma Research Foundation Scientific Advisory Council. His current research focuses on immunotherapy for melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, and predictive biomarkers for biologic therapy response.
“I am excited to join the Elpis Scientific Advisory Board and provide guidance as they propel their pre-clinical candidates forward,” said Michael Atkins. “The Elpis platforms use unique approaches to address cancer resistance and have the potential to bring about the next generation of transformative cancer immunotherapeutic candidates.”
Elpis’ proprietary mRNADis™ antibody discovery and mSCAFold™ rational protein engineering platforms enable rapid and robust discovery of novel bi-specific antibodies, dual targeting and armored CAR-T, and mechanism re-directed immunomodulator proteins.
Elpis has a broad preclinical pipeline aimed at overcoming tumor resistance by synergizing multiple mechanisms ranging from tumor targeting to immune cell activation. The Company’s lead immuno-oncology product candidates EPIM-001, a bispecific and engineered dual functional IL-2Rβ agonist with minimal IL-2Rα activation to treat solid tumor indications, and EPC-001, a CD19/CD22 dual targeting CAR-T to treat B Cell malignancies are being advanced to enter clinical studies.
About Elpis Biopharmaceuticals
Elpis Biopharmaceuticals is developing multifunctional immunotherapies, including dual-targeted armored CAR-T cells and bispecific biologics, aimed at activating the immune system to overcome tumor resistance. Through its proprietary antibody discovery and protein engineering platforms, Elpis is advancing a rich pipeline to treat solid tumors and hematological malignancies with the goal of improving outcomes for patients with difficult-to-treat and resistant cancers. Elpis is headquartered in Lexington, MA, with research labs in the U.S. and China.
Company Contact
Ahmad Reza Saadat
Vice President of Business Development & Corporate Strategy
ahmad.saadat@elpisbiopharm.com
Media Contact
Karen Sharma
MacDougall
781-235-3060
ksharma@macbiocom.com
Charles Zhao, M.D., MBA, brings more than 20 years of drug development experience in oncology therapeutic area. Before Elpis, Charles served as CMO at ABM Therapeutics and Sr. Medical Director at Mirati Therapeutics. Previously, he was Medical Director at EMD Serono working on cMET inhibitor global program in hepatocellular carcinoma indication; MEK inhibitor early phase development program in multiple indications including pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer, melanoma, NSCLC, CRC, TNBC, and CML; and MetAP2 inhibitor early phase development program. He was Associate Medical Director at Boehringer Ingelheim working on PLK1 inhibitor in urothelial carcinoma and AML indication. His career highlights also include his work at Novartis working on HDAC inhibitor in CTCL and PKC inhibitor in AML indication, and Eli Lilly in early phase clinical development.
Diala Ezzeddine, Ph.D. Diala is founder and CEO of Xios Therapeutics (Waltham, MA), a privately held, venture-backed drug discovery company. Xios is developing next generation oncology protein degrading therapeutics with the potential to transform the treatment and lives of cancer patients. From 2010 to 2015, Diala was EVP and Chief Business Officer of X-Chem. She was instrumental in crafting the company’s business strategy, obtaining an equity investment, and establishing multiple revenue generating partnerships with top tier pharmaceutical companies with a cumulative deal value surpassing $2B. In the course of her career, Diala held business development roles of increasing responsibility at several leading biotechnology companies in the Boston area including Millennium Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA, now Takeda Pharmaceuticals), and Archemix Corp. (Cambridge, MA). In support of the companies’ corporate strategies, she structured and negotiated value creating partnerships with several of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. Diala holds a Ph.D. in Genetics from Harvard Medical School obtained in 1997. Before that, she had conducted research in the Neurogenetics department at Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, MA). She is the lead author on a publication describing successful in vivo pre-clinical proof-of-concept for an innovative genetic engineering approach to treating malignant brain tumors.
Ahmad is the Vice President of Business Development and Corporate Strategy. Previously, he held roles in business development and corporate strategy at Epizyme and Momenta Pharmaceuticals. His diverse drug development experience includes roles in management consulting, commercial strategy, corporate finance, and program and portfolio management. Ahmad started his career in drug discovery as a research scientist at Abbvie, Vertex and Chiron. He holds a B.S in Chemistry from University of Massachusetts, an M.S. in Pharmacology from Northeastern University, and an MBA from F.W. Olin College of Business at Babson College.
Yan Chen, PhD: Founder, President and CEO. Yan brings more than 20 years of expertise in both mRNA display technology and biologic drug discovery in the oncology disease area. She was Biotherapeutics Discovery Head at Juno Therapeutics in Boston and Senior Vice President of Research at X-Body Biosciences which was acquired by Juno in 2015. Previously, she was an investigator and project leader in Oncology Biotherapeutics at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research. Earlier in her career, she was a scientist at Phylos and Adnexus playing instrumental roles in establishing the mRNA antibody and protein display technology platforms. Yan was a postdoctoral trainee in Immunology at Tufts Medical School and received her PhD in Tumor Immunology from National University of Singapore. She is the co-inventor of more than 20 antibody technologies and biologic therapeutics patents.
Kehao Zhao, PhD: Co-founder, Chief Scientific Officer. Kehao brings more than 15 years of drug discovery experience in disease areas including cancer, liver disease and ophthalmology. Before Elpis, Kehao was a senior investigator at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research leading antibody therapeutics platform and cancer epigenetics research. Previously, Kehao was a scientist at Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals. Kehao completed postdoctoral training in Gene Expression & Regulation at the Wistar institute and received his PhD from the Institute of Biophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Kehao has published over 30 research papers in prestigious scientific journals.