SOUTHLAKE, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--OncoNano Medicine, Inc. today announced the appointment of Elina Lavit as Vice President, Business Development. Mrs. Lavit brings over 18 years of experience in leadership roles in organizations ranging from start-ups to Fortune 100 corporations in various therapeutic areas, including oncology and surgery. At OncoNano, Mrs. Lavit will be responsible for driving strategic partnerships and business development activities to support the company’s continued growth.
“OncoNano continues to build momentum as we are entering a rapid phase of growth with pegsitacianine poised to enter Phase 3 clinical trials and our first therapeutic candidate, ONM-501, currently in IND-enabling studies,” said Martin Driscoll, CEO of OncoNano Medicine, Inc. “Elina’s background and her track record of success in leading business development efforts for pharmaceutical companies will be instrumental in helping us execute upon our goals.”
Mrs. Lavit previously served as Executive Director, Program Management at Taysha Gene Therapies, where she led alliance, strategy, and execution for one of the company’s leading assets. Prior, she served as Director of Program Management at Myokardia (acquired by BMS) providing strategic program management support for first in class drug candidate. Mrs. Lavit gained significant strategic collaboration experience while working at Pharmacyclics, Abbvie, and Ethicon (a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson). Mrs. Lavit earned her Bachelor of Science in Economics and Biology and Master of Science in Medical Science from Tel Aviv University.
“OncoNano’s highly innovative platforms have produced promising and differentiated therapeutic candidates,” said Mrs. Lavit. “I look forward to working with the OncoNano team on advancing these platforms and candidates that exploit the universal pH biomarker of solid tumors to enhance real-time surgical imaging and precisely deliver potent anti-tumor therapeutics.”
About OncoNano Medicine
OncoNano Medicine is developing a new class of products that utilize principles of molecular cooperativity in their design to exploit pH as a biomarker to diagnose and treat cancer with high specificity. Our product candidates and interventions are designed to help patients across the continuum of cancer care and include solid tumor therapeutics, agents for real-time image-guided surgery and a platform of immune-oncology therapeutics that activate and guide the body’s immune system to target cancer.
OncoNano’s lead development candidate is pegsitacianine, a novel fluorescent nanoprobe, that is currently under study in Phase 2 clinical trials as a real-time surgical imaging agent for use in multiple cancer surgeries. ONM-501, OncoNano’s second development program, is a next generation STING (STimulator of INterferon Genes) agonist that is advancing towards a first in human trial in the first half of 2023. Pegsitacianine and ONM-501 have been supported by grants received from the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas. Learn more at www.OncoNano.com.
