BOSTON & DAEJEON, South Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Orum Therapeutics, a biotechnology company pioneering the development of tumor-directed targeted protein degraders to treat cancer, today announced the appointment of David Main to the Company’s Board of Directors. Mr. Main is a highly experienced biopharmaceutical executive who has more than 30 years of industry leadership experience with a strong track record of value creation and company growth.
“David has extensive experience financing and leading biotech companies from early-stage research through commercial readiness,” said Sung Joo Lee, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Orum Therapeutics. “I welcome David’s insight as Orum advances into clinical trials the Company’s first-in-class therapeutic candidates based on our Antibody neoDegrader Conjugate platform.”
Orum’s Antibody neoDegrader Conjugate (AnDCTM) platform is built on novel targeted protein degrader (TPD) combined with the precise tumor cell delivery mechanisms of antibodies to generate innovative, first-in-class cell-specific TPD for the treatment of cancer. The company has developed new molecular glue degrader payloads (neoDegraders) to specifically degrade an intracellular target protein within cancer cells via the E3 ubiquitin ligase pathway. Conjugated to antibodies, neoDegraders are designed to be delivered specifically to cancer cells and degrade the intracellular target protein and cause tumor cell death.
“Orum’s AnDC platform combines the strengths of targeted protein degraders and antibody drug conjugates with a diversity of payloads needed to deliver precise tumor-killing action,” said Mr. Main. “I look forward to working with the Orum team and Board as the Company advances these innovative first-in-class tumor-directed targeted protein degraders into the clinic to improve the treatment of cancer.”
The lead therapeutic programs from Orum’s AnDC platform are ORM-5029 and ORM-6151, potential first-in-class targeted protein degrader therapies for HER2-expressing breast cancer and CD33-positive acute myeloid leukemia (AML), respectively. Each program employs a different antibody drug to specifically deliver Orum’s lead neoDegrader to tumor cells. The company plans to file Investigational New Drug (IND) applications with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for ORM-5029 in 2022 and ORM-6151 in 2023.
Mr. Main is President and Chief Executive Officer of Notch Therapeutics. Previously, as Chairman and CEO of Aquinox Pharmaceuticals, a company he co-founded in 2006, Mr. Main oversaw the advancement of the company’s lead product from target validation through Phase 3 clinical trials. He also led the transition of Aquinox from a private company to a Nasdaq-listed public company with approximately $300 million raised in equity capital and then completed the successful merger of Aquinox with Neoleukin Therapeutics. Prior to his leadership of Aquinox, Mr. Main served as President and CEO of INEX Pharmaceuticals and as a Vice President of QLT. He formerly served as the Chair of LifeSciences BC (formerly BC Biotech), BIOTECanada, and Accel-Rx as well as a Director of BIO.org. Mr. Main began his career as a licensed pharmacist at the Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, B.C. He received a BSc in pharmacy and an MBA from the University of British Columbia.
About Orum Therapeutics
Orum Therapeutics is pioneering the development of tumor-directed targeted protein degraders by leveraging its TPD2™ approach to provide dual precision, antibody-enabled targeted protein degraders for cell-specific delivery. The Company’s proprietary platforms generated using the TPD2 approach includes the Antibody neoDegrader Conjugate (AnDC™) platform, which generates first-in-class antibody drug conjugates. The first therapeutic candidates from the AnDC platform are in development for the treatment of solid tumors and hematologic cancers. Orum is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Daejeon, South Korea. For more information, visit www.orumrx.com.
