PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--KaliVir Immunotherapeutics, Inc., a biotech company developing cutting-edge, multi-mechanistic oncolytic viral immunotherapy programs, today announced the appointment of industry leader James M. Burke, M.D., as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) to further advance its vision of providing patients with truly life changing cancer therapeutics by leveraging its next generation oncolytic virus platform. Dr. Burke brings over 20 years of global development experience in immuno-oncology.
“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Burke to our team as we bring our pipeline of multi-mechanistic oncolytic virus programs into the clinic,” said Helena Chaye, Ph.D., J.D., Chief Executive Officer of KaliVir. “This is a pivotal time of growth for the company and bringing on board a CMO with Dr. Burke’s clinical and industry expertise in oncolytic viruses will be instrumental as we work together toward groundbreaking advancements in the fight against cancer.”
Most recently, Dr Burke was Chief Medical Officer at CG Oncology where he led preclinical, translational and clinical development of cretostimogene (AKA CG0070, a GM-CSF expressing oncolytic virus) for the treatment of bladder cancer from first in human phase 1 through completion of pivotal Phase 2-3 studies which enabled subsequent NASDAQ listing of the company. Previously, Dr. Burke was Chief Medical Office at Sillajen, Jennerex and Turnstone Biologics. Over the past 20 years, his teams have conducted Phase 1-3 studies with oncolytic immunotherapy globally across North America, Europe and APAC while treating more patients with this drug class than any other group. He started his career at Cell Genesys, spearheading early gene and immunotherapy studies including oncolytic adenovirus, lentivirus, AAV and tumor vaccine programs. In addition to his biotechnology experience, Dr. Burke has directed studies as a clinical investigator including first-in-human to Phase 3 studies across the spectrum of immune-oncology therapeutics. Dr. Burke attended Georgetown University Medical School before completing a residency in internal medicine at UC San Diego followed by a Hematology and Oncology Fellowship at UC San Francisco.
“I am quite excited to be leading clinical development at KaliVir where I believe the technology being developed has the opportunity to make a substantial impact on the lives of patients regardless of their cancer diagnosis,” said Dr. Burke.
About KaliVir Immunotherapeutics, Inc.
KaliVir Immunotherapeutics is a privately held biotech company developing cutting-edge, multimechanistic oncolytic viral immunotherapy programs. The company has developed a unique vaccinia virus-based platform, Vaccinia Enhanced Template “VET” Platform, that can generate potent novel oncolytic vaccinia viruses with modifications to maximize viral replication and to enhance intravenous delivery and spread. VET™ platform utilizes the large transgene capacity of the vaccinia virus to deliver therapeutics matched to tumor immunophenotypes to stimulate patients’ immune systems and modify the tumor microenvironment. KaliVir’s oncolytic virus candidates are designed to be safe, potent and systemically deliverable to treat cancer patients across multiple tumor types. KaliVir has separate collaborations with Roche and Astellas Pharma to design and generate novel oncolytic vaccinia viruses derived from the VET™ platform. In addition, Astellas entered into a world-wide exclusive license to develop and commercialize KaliVir’s initial lead clinical candidate VET2-L2 oncolytic vaccinia virus. KaliVir is currently advancing multiple therapeutic candidates toward the clinic. For more information, please visit www.kalivir.com.
