Apexigen, Inc. announced today the appointment of Jakob Dupont, M.D., to its Board of Directors. Dr. Dupont joins Apexigen's Board of Directors with over 25 years of tumor immunology research and clinical development experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries and in academia.
"Jakob brings to Apexigen an extensive track record of steering cancer drugs through the clinical development and regulatory process to registration. His experience will be invaluable in guiding clinical and regulatory strategy for our lead oncology product candidate, APX005M, as well as our pipeline of preclinical oncology programs. We look forward to his insights and guidance as a member of our Board," said Kenneth Fong, PhD., Chairman of Apexigen's Board of Directors.
"I'm delighted to join Apexigen's board as the Company continues to advance APX005M and its pipeline of preclinical immuno-oncology antibodies," said Dr. Dupont. "2020 and 2021 promise to be exciting as the Company anticipates clinical readouts across multiple of its 12 ongoing clinical trials for APX005M."
Dr. Dupont is currently Executive Vice President, Head of Global Research and Development, including Medical and Regulatory Affairs, at Atara Biotherapeutics. Prior to joining Atara, he served as Chief Medical Officer at Gossamer Bio, where he was responsible for global development, regulatory, and quality activities. Prior to his role at Gossamer, he served as Vice President and Global Head of Breast and Gynecologic Cancer Development for Genentech/Roche, where he was responsible for the global development of Herceptin®, Perjeta®, Kadcyla®, and Tecentriq®, among others. Earlier, Dr. Dupont was Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, where he oversaw the successful submissions of eight investigational new drug applications (INDs) and 26 clinical trial initiations. He also served as a faculty member and laboratory researcher at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and adjunct clinical faculty in medical oncology at Stanford University. Dr. Dupont received his M.D. from the Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University.
About Apexigen
Apexigen is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing a new generation of antibody therapeutics for oncology, with an emphasis on new immuno-oncology agents that could harness the patient's immune system to combat and eradicate cancer. APX005M, a CD40 agonistic antibody, and Apexigen's additional preclinical programs were discovered using APXiMAB™, Apexigen's proprietary product discovery platform. Apexigen and its various licensees are using this platform to seek to discover and develop high-quality therapeutic antibodies against a variety of molecular targets, including targets that are difficult to drug with conventional antibody technologies. Six product candidates discovered using APXiMAB™ are currently in clinical development, either internally by Apexigen or by its licensees. For more information, please visit www.apexigen.com.
