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Fusion Pharma Announces Formation of Advisory Board

By July 16, 2018 No Comments

Inaugural Advisory Board Includes Internationally Renowned Experts In Oncology and Radiation Therapy

BOSTON, MA and HAMILTON, ONTARIO, July 16, 2018 – Fusion Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company focused on radiotherapeutics (specifically, targeted alpha therapeutics), announced today the appointment of five internationally recognized clinician-scientists to its newly formed Advisory Board: Rosalyn Juergens, M.D., Ph.D., Deepak Khuntia, M.D., C. Gillies O’Bryan-Tear, M.D., MBA, Oliver Sartor, M.D., and Geoffrey Shapiro M.D., Ph.D.

The members are internationally renowned experts in oncology and radiation therapies, in particular Phase 1 oncology trials, radiopharmaceutical and antibody therapeutics, and advanced radiation treatments. The Advisory Board is composed of academic and industry thought leaders with extensive experience advising a number of North American and European biotech companies.

“We are honored to have attracted some of the world’s leading experts in oncology and radiation therapies to join our Advisory Board,” said John Valliant, Ph.D., Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Fusion Pharmaceuticals. “The background and experience these renowned clinician-scientists bring to Fusion Pharma will be invaluable as we advance our lead antibody-targeted radiotherapy, FPX-01, into the clinic this year. Our new Advisory Board will work in close collaboration with our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Istvan Molnar, and our talented clinical development team. Together, they will implement our image-guided patient selection strategy as we advance our pipeline of targeted radiopharmaceuticals to create a new generation of cancer therapeutics for patients.”

Rosalyn Juergens, M.D., Ph.D.

 

Dr. Juergens received her medical degree from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.  She was an intern and resident in the Osler Internal Medicine Training Program at The Johns Hopkins Medical Institute.  She completed a fellowship in medical oncology with a focus on upper aerodigestive malignancies as well at Johns Hopkins.  Additionally, she completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Investigation at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  She was on the faculty at Johns Hopkins from 2007-2010 until she joined the faculty at McMaster University in 2011.

Dr. Juergens’ clinical expertise is in lung and esophageal cancer. She chairs the Lung Disease Site Team at the Juravinski Cancer Centre in Hamilton, Ontario.  She is also a patient advocate and serves as the Medical Advisory Committee Chair for Lung Cancer Canada.  She is the Head of the Department of Clinical Trials at the Juravinski Cancer Centre.  She is a member of the Escarpment Cancer Research Institute.  Her areas of research expertise involve improving therapeutics and diagnostics in cancer.

Her research focus has been in developmental therapeutics with a concentration on Phase I and II clinical trials including radiopharmaceutical therapies. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group Investigational New Drug Committee.  She is a member of the Cancer Research Institute’s Scientific Leadership Committee.  She has published her work in prominent journals including such as the Journal of Clinical Oncology, The New England Journal of Medicine and Cancer Discovery.  She has been a principal investigator on numerous clinical trials assessing treatments in lung cancer as well as esophagogastric cancer.  She is a highly sought teacher in the field of immunotherapy and has been an invited speaker across the world.

Deepak Khuntia, M.D.

 

Dr. Deepak Khuntia is a board-certified radiation oncologist who serves as the SVP and Chief Medical Officer at Varian.

Over the past five years, Dr. Khuntia has expanded his team with global responsibilities over all aspects requiring clinical expertise, including but not limited to regulatory, research, education, product support, mergers and acquisitions.  In addition to his responsibilities at Varian, he continues to hold a part time clinical practice in Radiation Oncology in the Bay Area where he has a special interest in advanced radiation technologies, central nervous system tumors, head and neck cancer, and lung cancer.  He continues to remain academically active while co-chairing multiple cooperative group trials and also serving as an examiner for the American Board of Radiology.

Dr. Khuntia holds an undergraduate and medical school degree both from the University of Illinois and has completed his residency in Radiation Oncology at the Cleveland Clinic.  Prior to moving to the Bay Area, he was an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin where he served multiple leadership roles including Residency Director, Director of Radiation Oncology Outreach, and Course Director of Oncology for the Medical School.

Gillies O’Bryan-Tear, M.D., MBA

 

Dr.  Gillies O’Bryan-Tear is a Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine in the UK and Chair of the Policy and Communications Group, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine and a Fellow at the Royal College of Physicians.

Dr. O’Bryan-Tear obtained his MD degree from the Universities of Cambridge and London and trained in internal medicine in the UK. He joined the pharmaceutical industry in 1986 where he has spent 30 years in clinical development, medical management and commercial roles. He has held senior leadership roles in large and small pharmaceutical and biotech companies, in the US and Europe, and has been involved in multiple product approvals.  In 2009 he became Chief Medical Officer of Algeta ASA, a listed Norwegian biotech company developing a radiopharmaceutical for prostate cancer, which was launched worldwide in 2013. Since 2014, Dr O’Bryan-Tear has been a retained adviser to a number of US and European biotech companies.

Oliver Sartor, M.D.

 

Dr. Oliver Sartor is a medical oncologist with a special focus on prostate cancer over the past 28 years, and is the Laborde Professor for Cancer Research, Medical Director of the Tulane Cancer Center, and Assistant Dean for Oncology at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, LA.

Dr. Sartor has published over 300 peer review publications and has over 20,000 citations. He has lectured widely, giving lectures on prostate cancer in 34 countries. Dr. Sartor has been a primary investigator (PI) or co-PI on multiple national and international advanced prostate cancer trials including those pivotal for FDA approval with samarium-153 EDTMP, cabazitaxel, and radium-223. In addition, he is currently medical oncology chair of the NRG GU committee, a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors (Clinical and Epidemiology) at the National Cancer Institute, and Editor-in-Chief of journal Clinical Genitourinary Cancer, published by Elsevier. Previous positions including serving as Chairman of the Prostate Cancer Integration Panel for the U.S. Department of Defense. He has been chair of 5 Data Monitoring Committees for Phase III trials that lead to FDA approval. He has served on numerous guideline and consensus committees over the years.

Geoffrey Shapiro, M.D., Ph.D.

 

Dr. Shapiro is Professor of Medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where he is Director of the Early Drug Development Center, Clinical Director of the Center for DNA Damage and Repair and co-Leader of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center Program in Developmental Therapeutics. He is a recognized leader in Phase 1 anti-cancer drug development, where he has focused on translational and clinical research of inhibitors of the cancer cell cycle, signal transduction and of DNA repair. His findings have informed the development of these agents as monotherapies and have translated into mechanistically based combinatorial strategies.

About Fusion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Fusion Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company located in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and Boston, MA, focused on becoming the leader in the targeted alpha therapy field. Fusion will exploit its unique expertise in linking medical isotopes to targeting molecules to create highly effective therapeutics. In addition to its lead program, FPX-01 with a clinical trial planned for 2018, Fusion is expanding its pipeline of products through a proprietary protein discovery platform, in-licensing targeting molecules, and forming new strategic partnerships.  For more information, please visit www.fusionpharma.com or contact info@fusionpharma.com.

Contacts

Fusion Pharmaceuticals
Lynn Wick
info@fusionpharma.com