Aduro Biotech Appoints Hans van Eenennaam Executive Vice President Antibody Research and Site Head, Aduro Biotech Europe

BERKELEY, Calif., March 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Aduro Biotech, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADRO) today announced that Hans van Eenennaam, Ph.D. has been promoted to executive vice president antibody research and site head of Aduro Biotech Europe. In his new role, Hans will lead antibody research and oversee the day to day operations of Aduro Biotech Europe.

“Hans continues to be an invaluable member of the Aduro team,” said Stephen T. Isaacs, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Aduro Biotech, Inc. “Given Hans’ long history and expertise in the field of monoclonal antibodies, including inventorship of our anti-APRIL antibody, BION-1301, and the anti-CD27 antibody licensed to Merck, we look forward to Hans’ leadership in the discovery of novel antibody targets and their advancement through development.”

Prior to its acquisition by Aduro in 2015, Dr. van Eenennaam served as chief operating officer of BioNovion, a company he co-founded in 2011 to focus on the development of innovative therapeutic antibodies in the field of immune oncology. Earlier in his career, he held numerous positions of increasing responsibility at Organon in Oss, Netherlands, and the Organon Research Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which was acquired by Schering-Plough Corporation in 2007 and later by Merck & Co. He led the discovery and development of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies and small molecule entities in the field of oncology and immunology. While at Organon, Dr. van Eenennaam, in cooperation with a team of scientists, discovered pembrolizumab (Keytruda®), a humanized therapeutic antibody acquired by Merck and approved in 2014 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of melanoma and subsequently for additional indications including, non-small cell lung cancer and head and neck cancer. In 2016, he and colleagues were honored by the Intellectual Property Owner’s Association with the 43rd Annual Inventor of the Year Award. He is named as inventor on twelve pending and granted patent families, including the patents claiming Keytruda, and author on over 25 publications. Dr. van Eenennaam received his doctorate in autoimmune biochemistry (cum laude) from Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands. Dr. van Eenennaam currently sits on the board of directors for Lygature, a non-profit organization that independently enables public-private partnerships between large corporates, smaller companies and academia and helps MedTech and Pharma professionals to work together. He holds a second board of directors position at a privately-held Germany-based company focusing on immune oncology.

About Aduro
Aduro Biotech, Inc. is an immunotherapy company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of therapies that transform the treatment of challenging diseases. Aduro’s technology platforms, which are designed to harness the body’s natural immune system, are being investigated in cancer indications and have the potential to expand into autoimmune and infectious diseases. Aduro’s STING Pathway Activator platform is designed to activate the STING receptor in immune cells, resulting in a potent tumor-specific immune response. ADU-S100 is the first STING Pathway Activator compound to enter the clinic and is currently being evaluated in both a Phase 1 monotherapy study as well as a Phase 1b combination study with an anti-PD1 immune checkpoint inhibitor. Aduro’s B-select monoclonal antibody platform is comprised of a number of immune modulating assets in research and development, including BION-1301, an anti-APRIL antibody. Aduro’s pLADD program is based on proprietary attenuated strains of Listeria that have been engineered to express tumor neoantigens that are specific to an individual patient’s tumor. Other Listeria strains for lung and prostate cancers are being advanced by a partner. Aduro is collaborating with leading global pharmaceutical companies to expand its products and technology platforms. For more information, please visit www.aduro.com.

Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding our intentions or current expectations concerning, among other things, the potential for our technology platforms, plans, and the potential for eventual regulatory approval of our product candidates. In some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as “may,” “will,” “continue,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “could,” “project,” “seek,” “expect,” “position” or the negative or plural of these words or similar expressions.  Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those anticipated, including, but not limited to, our history of net operating losses and uncertainty regarding our ability to achieve profitability, our ability to develop and commercialize our product candidates, our ability to use and expand our technology platforms to build a pipeline of product candidates, our ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approval of our product candidates, our ability to operate in a competitive industry and compete successfully against competitors that have greater resources than we do, our reliance on third parties, and our ability to obtain and adequately protect intellectual property rights for our product candidates.  We discuss many of these risks in greater detail under the heading “Risk Factors” contained in our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 2017, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements that we make in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release. We assume no obligation to update our forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date of this press release.

Contact: Media Contact:
Jennifer Lew Aljanae Reynolds
Chief Financial Officer 510 809 2452
510 809-4816  press@aduro.com

Ads