Dr. Christoph Lengauer has an outstanding track-record in cancer drug discovery, including contributing to the development of more than 20 drugs that have reached human clinical trials and four FDA-approved medicines. He is currently a Venture Partner at Third Rock Ventures and President at Celsius Therapeutics, Cambridge, USA.
Previously, Dr. Lengauer was Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Drug Hunter at Blueprint Medicines, Vice President and Global Head of Oncology Drug Discovery and Preclinical Development at Sanofi and Executive Director and Senior Unit Head of Oncology Discovery at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research. Prior to Novartis, Dr. Lengauer was an Associate Professor at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. As part of his research, he discovered that all cancers are genetically unstable, and was involved in the identification of several cancer driver genes. Dr. Lengauer has authored more than one hundred scientific articles published in leading peer reviewed scientific journals, including Cell, Nature and Science.
John Lambert, a Non-Executive Director and a former Chairman of Hookipa’s Board has stepped down at the end of his four-year term.
Dr. Jan van de Winkel, Chairman of Hookipa said “On behalf of Hookipa’s Board of Directors I’d like to thank John for his valuable inputs over the years which has helped contribute to Hookipa’s success today. We wish him every success for the future.”
Welcoming Dr. Lengauer he said “Christoph has extensive strategic and operational leadership experience in both big pharma and biotech. Hookipa’s Board will benefit tremendously from this deep scientific knowledge as we are rapidly expanding our pipeline beyond infectious diseases to immuno-oncology.”
Commenting on his appointment Dr. Christoph Lengauer said “This is an exciting time for joining the Hookipa Board. The Company has developed a powerful viral vector based immunotherapy technology, which elicits potent antibody and T cell responses, and is now building a strong pipeline in oncology and infectious diseases. Hookipa has the potential to help patients whose diseases are hard to treat”.
Hookipa has successfully completed a Phase 1 trial of a Vaxwave®-based prophylactic vaccine to protect against cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections and will soon start a Phase 2 proof-of concept trial to protect patients undergoing solid organ transplant from CMV (re-)infection. In June 2018, Gilead Sciences Inc. and Hookipa engaged to jointly research and develop functional cures for HIV and Hepatitis B infections. In immuno-oncology, Hookipa is in IND enabling studies to start clinical trials with TheraT® in Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)-mediated head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
About Hookipa
Hookipa Pharma Inc. is a clinical stage company developing products to prevent and cure infectious diseases and cancer. With this goal in mind we created unique and cutting-edge technologies which reprogram and stimulate the immune system.
Our Arenavirus technologies, Vaxwave®, a replication-deficient viral vector, and TheraT®, an attenuated replicating vector, induce potent pathogen-neutralizing antibodies and CD8+ T cells. Both, Vaxwave® and TheraT®, can be administered repeatedly while maintaining their efficacy. TheraT® induced CD8+ T cell responses to tumor antigens reach frequencies and potencies matching or exceeding those observed after adoptive T cell therapy. Hookipa’s “off-the shelf” viral vectors are administered systemically. They target dendritic cells in vivo and activate the immune system. In immune-oncology, this mechanism enables to fight solid tumors systemically, both primary and secondary (metastatic).
At Hookipa we have successfully completed a Phase 1 trial of a Vaxwave®-based prophylactic vaccine to protect against cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections. A proof-of concept trial in solid organ transplant patients will start imminently. We have forged a landmark partnership with Gilead Sciences Inc. to jointly research and develop functional cures for HIV and Hepatitis B infections. We are building a proprietary immune-oncology pipeline by targeting TheraT® towards HPV+ head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and prostate cancer.
Find out more about Hookipa online at www.hookipapharma.com.