Executive Summary
NeoTX is a specialty biopharmaceutical company, with a focus on research and development in oncology immunotherapy. With a strong research and development team, our strategy is to build a patented, proprietary and unique product pipeline to capitalize on technologies that NeoTX is developing independently and through collaborative partnerships and license agreements.
Management
ASHER NATHAN PhD
CEODr. Asher Nathan has extensive biotech operating experience, having started biotech companies, Intelligene and ...
Read moreHide...EvoRx, both of which were formed around technologies which he invented. Intelligene was a pioneering biotech company which dealt with molecular evolution and successfully attracted venture capital from top international venture firms including Walden Investments, Advent and Rothschild Venture Capital. The technology was acquired by Genetico. EvoRx was founded together with Nobel Prize Winners Arthur Kornberg and Roger Kornberg, and Jim Manuso, who was subsequently CEO of several successful publicly traded biotech companies, including Supergen. Dr. Nathan has authored over 25 patents in the field of biotechnology.
Prior to co-founding NeoTX, Dr. Nathan co-founded Zoticon Bioventures where he served as Managing Partner. Before that, Dr. Nathan served as a Managing Director at Paramount Biocapital, a top rated venture fund for in-licensing biotechnology transactions. His responsibilities at Paramount included managing Paramount’s European office.
MARCEL ROZENCWEIG M.D.
CMODr. Rozencweig is a medical oncologist with more than 40 years of experience and accumulated expertise in clinical trials and...
Read moreHide... anti-cancer drug development in academia, at the National Cancer Institute, and in the pharmaceutical industry.
Dr. Rozencweig has a proven track record in global drug development leadership, having served in various senior leadership positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb in worldwide clinical R&D, strategic planning, strategic marketing, portfolio management and portfolio development.
He built and led the BMS clinical research group that developed all the NCE’s (including Carboplatin and Taxol) that BMS brought to market in the field of cancer from 1983 to 2001. Dr. Rozencweig has held senior management positions in a number of small US and international biotechnology companies. He is also currently President of Innate Pharma Inc.
RAMONA LLOYD PhD R.A.C.
COODr. Lloyd is a leading regulatory expert with over 20 years of experience in global regulatory affairs and quality assurance. ...
Read moreHide... She has led or participated in the submission and marketing approval of over a dozen small molecule, biologic and biologic/device combination products in a wide variety of therapeutic areas such as oncology, endocrinology/metabolism, antivirals, respiratory and psychiatric disorders.
Prior to joining NeoTX, Dr. Lloyd served as a consultant to the pharmaceutical industry and as a senior executive with Sanofi-Aventis, Bristol Myers-Squibb, and Johnson and Johnson. She acted as Sr. Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs and Drug Safety at ImClone Systems Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly and has served as Vice President, Worldwide Regulatory Affairs and Quality Compliance for both public and private biotechs such as GPC Biotech Inc. She is also currently Vice President, Regulatory and Quality of Optinose US Inc.
Dr. Lloyd earned her professional credentials in regulation of healthcare products, Regulatory Affairs Certified (RAC), and has distinguished herself as a scientist with numerous awards and publications. She holds a doctorate in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology from Rutgers University- Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and was a researcher at the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine. She was recognized by the Biomedical Engineering Department of Rutgers University with the 2003 Distinguished Alumni Award and serves as a member of the Industrial Advisory Board, Department of Biomedical Engineering.
ROBERT HAROW
CFOPrior to co-founding NeoTX, Mr. Harow co-founded Zoticon Bioventures, where ...
Read moreHide...he served as Managing Partner. While at Zoticon he raised over $100 Million for investment in its portfolio companies.
Mr. Harow has served as Managing Director at the Trout Group, a global investor relations and strategic advisory company dedicated solely to the life science industry. Prior to Trout, he was a Senior Vice President at Gerard Klauer Mattison (now part of BMO Group), a research and investment-banking firm. His responsibilities included managing GKM’s European Corporate Finance division and international venture capital opportunities. Mr. Harow has completed over $2 Billion in financing and advisory work.
ROGER KORNBERG PhD
CSODr. Kornberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2006 for his studies of the process by which genetic information ...
Read moreHide... from DNA is copied to RNA, “the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription.” Presently, he holds a position as Professor of Structural Biology at Stanford Medical School. Dr. Kornberg earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry from Harvard University in 1967 and his PhD in chemical physics from Stanford in 1972.
MICHAL SHAHAR PhD
VP of R&DDr. Shahar previously served as VP of Research and Development at Efranat Ltd., an immuno-oncology drug ...
Read moreHide...development company.
Dr. Shahar was in charge of drug development, drug production, non-clinical work, methods development and biomarkers discovery and analysis. Prior to Efranat, she served as Director of Project Management for TransPharma Medical, where she led the development of their main product in collaboration with Eli Lilly.
Dr. Shahar has also served as Pre-clinical Director and Director of R&D of the Pharma and Cosmetics division of Power Paper Ltd, Head of the Pre-clinical lab at Zetiq Technologies Ltd, and Senior Scientist and Project Leader at Balm Pharmaceuticals Ltd. She holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the Bar-Ilan University, Israel.
Pipeline
NeoTX is building a pipeline of differentiated cancer immunotherapies
T Cells can kill tumors but are often repressed
Our immune system is designed to kill cancer. The T cell, is the immune system’s killing machine: T cells can hunt down unhealthy cells like cancer and destroy them. Each T cell identifies a unique signature on a cell’s surface, so only the right T cell can interact with the tumor. Besides T cells specificity, the tumor can produce repressive signals, “checkpoints”, essentially inactivating the T cell.
Checkpoint inhibitors reactivate T cells
Checkpoint inhibitor therapy (“CPI”), which reactivates the T cells, enabling them to kill tumors, continues to dominate the oncology market with 2018 sales of $16BN. Since many tumors have signatures that are difficult for the immune system to identify, even when the checkpoint inhibitors reactivate the T cells, if the T cells can not recognize the tumor, then the drug will have no effect. Therefore only a relatively small fraction of patients respond to checkpoint inhibitor drugs as a monotherapy, and despite the impressive revenues, these drugs do not actually help most patients.
T cell redirection technologies can unlock the potential of checkpoint inhibitors
T cell redirection technologies (such as CAR T and BiTE) increase tumor recognition, thereby redirecting the T cells to the tumor, after they can become activated by CPIs. While CAR T and BiTE technologies have been approved in some blood-based tumors, they are only in early clinical stage development in solid tumors, as there are many hurdles that need to be overcome for them to be effective in solid tumors. CAR T suffers from serious safety concerns, manufacturing complexity and difficulties in getting the T cells through a hostile environment that surrounds the tumor. BiTE likewise has safety concerns as it can stimulate all T cells causing the immune system to go into overdrive, a condition known as cytokine release syndrome (CRS). Nevertheless, T cell redirection technologies have had high valuations including Kite Therapeutics sale to Gilead Pharmaceuticals for $12BN and Juno Therapeutics sale to Celgene for $9BN while still in phase II.
NeoTX’s “STR” platform Overview
NeoTX’s “STR” platform represents a potential paradigm shift in T cell redirection. NeoTX’s STR drug, ANYARA, is comparatively easy to manufacture. There are early clinical observations that ANYARA can redirect the traffic of T cells into solid tumors and clinical safety has been established in 300 patients. The drug has not triggered serious CRS syndrome in patients. The drug coats the tumor with bacterial components that are easy for the T cells to identify and directs them to the tumor. Because only T cells that have the bacterial recognition signature are selectively stimulated there is less of a concern for safety
Clinical Trials
The first STR drug will enter the clinic, in combination with CPIs, in the second half of 2019. The trial will begin with a dose escalation trial designed to test its safety in combination with a CPI and will be followed by a cohort expansion in hard-to-treat patient populations.
In addition to ANYARA, NeoTX has other programs in immuno-oncology that are in research and development that seek to fill unmet medical needs.
To achieve success, NeoTX’s strategy for growth is to:
- Discover, acquire and develop technologies that modulate antigen presentation or exploit other mechanisms to enhance the immune system’s ability to attack tumors.
- Develop business partnerships with ANYARA.
- Commercialize proprietary products through corporate alliances.