MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA—(Marketwired – March 03, 2016) – Amunix is pleased to announce the appointment Harold E. “Barry” Selick and Walter H. Moos to the company's board of directors.Â
“Barry and Walter are strong additions to our company; their breadth of management and research and development experience will benefit us greatly as we expand our portfolio of partnered assets, while also advancing our immuno–oncology pipeline,” stated Volker Schellenberger, President and Chief Executive Officer of Amunix. “Our XTEN technology platform has been well validated with our partners and, based upon the early success of ProTIA, we believe now is the time to advance our proprietary pipeline. We are committed to creating value for shareholders and partners in the coming years, and Barry and Walter will be invaluable to our efforts.”
Harold E. “Barry” Selick, Ph.D. has been the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Threshold Pharmaceuticals since June 2002. From January 1999 to April 2002, he was CEO of Camitro Corporation, a biotechnology company. From 1992 to 1999, he was at Affymax Research Institute, the drug discovery technology development center for Glaxo Wellcome plc, most recently as Vice President (VP) of Research. Prior to working at Affymax he held scientific positions at Protein Design Labs, Inc. and Anergen, Inc. As a staff scientist at Protein Design Labs, he co–invented the technology underlying the creation of fully humanized antibody therapeutics and applied that to PDL's first product, Zenapax, which was developed and commercialized by Roche for the prevention of kidney transplant rejection. Dr. Selick received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and was a Damon Runyon–Walter Winchell Cancer Fund Fellow and an American Cancer Society Senior Fellow at the University of California San Francisco.
Walter H. Moos, Ph.D. retired as President of SRI Biosciences and a VP of SRI International in early 2016. Prior to his nearly 11 years at SRI, he was Chairman/CEO of MitoKor (1997–2004) and a VP at Chiron (1991–1997) and Warner–Lambert/Parke–Davis (1982–1991). He has served on about 20 business and scientific boards, not–for–profit and for–profit, including the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), the Critical Path Institute, Keystone Symposia, Oncologic (Aduro), Onyx (Amgen), and Rigel. He has advised and served as a committee member for academic, government, and investor groups, including the University of Michigan, the National Academy of Sciences, and Red Abbey Venture Partners. He has co–founded several scientific journals, co–edited 5 books, and has over 150 patents and publications. Dr. Moos has held faculty positions at several major universities and has been an adjunct Professor at the University of California San Francisco since 1992. He holds A.B. and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry from Harvard University and the University of California Berkeley, respectively.
About Amunix
Amunix, based in Mountain View, CA, is a privately held biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of novel therapeutics with improved in vivo half–lives. Amunix's half–life extension technology is based on XTEN — hydrophilic, unstructured, biodegradable proteins that impart a number of favorable properties upon the molecules to which they are attached. XTEN can be recombinantly fused or chemically conjugated to peptides, proteins, and other pharmaceuticals. In addition to the advantages of reduced dosing frequency, XTENylation also stabilizes plasma drug concentrations, which often results in increased efficacy as well as reduced side effects. Two genetically fused XTENylated products, VRS–859 (exenatide–XTEN) and VRS–317 (human growth hormone–XTEN) have completed Phase 1 studies. Amunix partner Versartis successfully completed a Phase 2a clinical trial with VRS–317 and has initiated a Phase 3 trial in children with growth–hormone deficiency. Amunix is also working with other partners, including Eli Lilly, Biogen, Roche, Janssen, Baxalta, Ambrx, Zealand, Noxxon and other undisclosed partners in a wide range of therapeutic areas. Amunix is developing an internal pipeline of ProTIA (Protease Triggered Immune Activator) therapeutics. ProTIAs are bispecific molecules that bind tumor antigens and T cells. ProTIAs are administered as long–acting prodrugs that can be activated in the tumor environment by tumor–associated proteases. Amunix is actively seeking partnerships for application of its XTEN technology and its ProTIA platform. For additional information about the company, please visit www.amunix.com.
Amunix and the Amunix logo and XTEN logo are considered trademarks of Amunix Operating, Inc.