– USA, CA – Indapta Therapeutics, Inc., a privately-held biotechnology company today announced the appointment of Dr. Mark Frohlich (M.D.) to its Board Directors as CEO, succeeding founding CEO and co-founder Guy DiPierro who stepped to the position of chief strategy officer.
The company also announced it raised over $50 million in Series A financing round co-led by RA Capital Management, LP, Vertex Ventures HC, and Leaps by Bayer, with the Myeloma Investment Fund and Lonza also participating in the round.
In connection with the financing, Dr. Laura Stoppel (Ph.D.), principal at RA Capital Management, LP, Lori Hu, managing director at Vertex Ventures HC, and Dr. Fabio Pucci (Ph.D.), senior director of venture investments health at Leaps by Bayer, joined the board of directors.
The company will use the proceeds of the financing to grow the team and continue to advance its universal, allogeneic NK cell platform toward an Investigational New Drug Application and clinical trials. The company’s platform involves the isolation and expansion of a subset of NK cells known as G-NK cells, which have increased potency relative to conventional NK cells. Because the G-NK cells have very active antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity, they have the potential to provide substantial clinical benefit to patients when used in combination with monoclonal antibodies. Indapta’s G-NK cells are isolated from healthy donors and do not require genetic engineering, so they can serve as an off-the-shelf treatment that can overcome the cost and inconsistency of autologous T-cell therapies.
“Mark is perfectly suited to lead Indapta as we move our unique G-NK cell therapy closer to clinical trials in patients with multiple myeloma and lymphoma. His biopharma management pedigree, successful drug development track record and scientific acumen, together with our Series A financing from such an experienced syndicate of investors, will accelerate our ability to bring this innovative therapy to patients. We look forward to Guy’s continued contributions as he transitions to the role of chief strategy officer,” said co-founder and board chairman, Ron Martell.
About Dr. Mark W. Frohlich
Dr. Frohlich has more than 25 years of experience developing cellular immunotherapies to treat cancer. He previously served as EVP of portfolio strategy at Juno Therapeutics, which developed the FDA-approved CAR T-cell therapy Breyanzi® for large B-cell lymphoma, until the company was sold to Celgene, now part of Bristol Myers Squibb. Before Juno, Dr. Frohlich was CMO and EVP at Dendreon Corporation, a pioneer in the development of cellular immunotherapy. At Dendreon, he led the clinical team responsible for the development and the U.S. and European regulatory approval of PROVENGE®, one of the first commercially available cancer immunotherapies.
Before joining Dendreon, Dr. Frohlich served as VP and medical director at Xcyte Therapies, where he led the clinical development program for an autologous activated T-cell therapy to treat cancer. Earlier in his career, he was an assistant adjunct professor of hematology/oncology at the University of California, San Francisco, where he specialized in urologic oncology and conducted laboratory, translational and clinical research. Dr. Frohlich earned a B.S. in electrical engineering and economics from Yale College and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School. At UCSF, he served as chief resident in medicine and completed a fellowship in hematology/oncology and a Howard Hughes postdoctoral fellowship. Dr. Frohlich has served as a strategic advisor to several early-stage immuno-oncology and cell therapy companies and currently serves on the boards of NEUVOGEN and Bioeclipse Therapies.
“I joined Indapta because I believe its NK cell platform is truly differentiated and its preclinical data is particularly compelling. I’m excited to bring this off-the-shelf cell therapy to the clinic, where we have the potential to demonstrate it can benefit patients without the toxicities associated with currently approved cell therapies,” said Dr. Frohlich. “I look forward to applying everything I’ve learned over the past two decades to develop this novel therapy.”
About Indapta Therapeutics
Indapta Therapeutics, Inc. is a biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing a proprietary allogeneic cell therapy to treat multiple types of hematologic cancers and solid tumors. The company has developed allogeneic FcεRIγ-deficient natural killer cells, known as G-NK cells, and is working to bring this off-the-shelf cell therapy to patients to address the limitations of currently available autologous T-cell therapies. Indapta was founded in 2017 based on a discovery by Sungjin Kim, Ph.D., at UC Davis. Indapta’s scientific founders are Dr. Kim and John Sunwoo, M.D., at Stanford University.
For more information: https://indapta.com/
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