Aduro Biotech Appoints Oncology Expert and Industry Veteran Natalie Sacks, M.D. as Chief Medical Officer

BERKELEY, Calif., Sept. 06, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Aduro Biotech, Inc. (Nasdaq:ADRO) today announced the appointment of Natalie R. Sacks, M.D., to the position of chief medical officer.

“Dr. Sacks’ clinical background as well as her broad experience in all aspects of product development – from global clinical and regulatory strategy through reimbursement and expansion indications – will be instrumental in guiding our internal and partnered programs,” said Stephen T. Isaacs, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Aduro. “With multiple immunotherapies from Aduro’s diverse LADD, STING and B-select technology platforms advancing into and through clinical development, it is an ideal time to welcome Natalie to our executive team.”

Prior to joining Aduro, Natalie served as an advisor on development strategy for multiple firms.  Previously, she was vice president of Clinical Development at Onyx Pharmaceuticals where she played a key role in the development and approval of Kyprolis® and in business development strategy.  Prior to that, she served as vice president of Clinical Research for Exelixis where she directed the development of a portfolio of small molecules, ranging from IND filing to late-stage development, including Cometriq. Earlier in her career, she held positions of increasing responsibility at Cell Genesys, culminating as vice president of Clinical Development. Cell Genesys was focused on the development of cancer vaccines and engineered chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells.  Prior to her tenure in biotechnology, she served in a variety of research and analytical roles at academic institutions and companies including Massachusetts General Hospital, Medical College of Pennsylvania, and ICI-Stuart Pharmaceuticals.

In addition to her industry experience, Dr. Sacks holds an active faculty appointment at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) where she is an assistant clinical professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology. She received her M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, her M.S. in Biostatistics from Harvard University School of Public Health and her B.A. in Mathematics from Bryn Mawr College.

“I am excited to be joining Aduro, a truly unique company in the immunotherapy field with multiple promising platforms,” said Natalie Sacks, M.D., chief medical officer of Aduro. “The immuno-oncology field is rapidly evolving toward combination regimens and having a number of approaches in our portfolio makes us a strong force in the industry. Having worked with Aduro in a consulting capacity previously, I recognize the potential of our innovative platform technologies to change the landscape of cancer treatment, and I am delighted to be a part of advancing this important work.”

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 LADD technology platform is based on proprietary attenuated strains of Listeria that have been engineered to express tumor-associated antigens to induce specific and targeted immune responses. This platform is being developed as a treatment for multiple indications, including pancreatic, ovarian, lung and prostate cancers, mesothelioma and glioblastoma. Aduro’s STING Pathway Activator platform is designed to activate the intracellular STING receptor, 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 a Phase 1 study in patients with cutaneously accessible metastatic solid tumors or lymphomas. Aduro’s B-select monoclonal antibody platform includes a number of immune modulating assets in research and preclinical development. 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,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “could,” “project,” “expect” 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 inability 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 June 30, 2016, 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: Contact:
Alexandra Santos
Sr. Director, Corporate Affairs
510 809 9231

Media Contact:
Angela Bitting
925 202 6211
press@aduro.com

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