OTTAWA, Ontario, March 12, 2019 (Newswire.com) – Orion Biotechnology Canada Ltd., a developer of novel medical treatments, today announced a significant expansion to their senior management team.
Dr. Bozena Korczak was appointed as Chief Translational Research Officer. Bozena is a translational science executive with more than 20 years of experience across multiple therapeutic areas including oncology, inflammatory diseases, dermatology, cardiology, and infectious diseases. Recent appointments included VP of Drug Development and co-founder at Karunix Inc. and Chief Technology Officer and co-founder at NovaLyse Biosolutions. Concerning her appointment, Ian McGowan, currently CSO at Orion, said, “We are delighted that Bozena is joining the Orion team. We are very lucky to have recruited someone with such extensive experience in preclinical, CMC, and early clinical stage development across multiple therapeutic areas.” Bozena added, “Much of my career has been spent in start-up and early-stage biotech companies and so I am very excited to join Orion to help them move their pipeline into the clinic.”
Dr. Oliver Hartley, who is an assistant professor at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, will join Orion as VP Drug Discovery. Anatole Klepatsky, COO at Orion said, “We are incredibly lucky to have recruited Oliver to Orion. Oliver invented OB-002 (5P12 RANTES), a CCR5 antagonist which is the lead compound in our HIV prevention and oncology programs. He also took a lead in the early pre-clinical development of the molecule at the Mintaka Foundation for Medical Research. His encyclopedic knowledge of chemokine receptor pharmacology will be critical as we develop new chemokine receptor antagonists for unmet medical needs.” Oliver commented, “I am delighted to join Orion. The breadth of experience of the management team is really helping to accelerate the process of moving OB-002 from the bench to the bedside. I also look forward to the further development of OB-002 in other areas as well as introducing new chemokine receptor antagonists into the Orion pipeline.”
The final change to the Orion management team is the appointment of Dr. Ian McGowan as Chief Medical Officer of Orion Biotechnology. Ian is currently the CSO at Orion but as the Orion pipeline moves into the clinical, he will take on responsibility for both the clinical and research programs. Ian said, “My changing role at Orion reflects the rapid progress we have made in moving our pipeline from the preclinical to clinical phase of development. I very much look forward to initiating our first-in-human Phase 1 trial of OB-002H gel in Poland later this year.”
Mark Groper, CEO at Orion, commented on these three appointments, “The fact that we can attract such experienced scientists to Orion really reflects the excitement around the emerging role of chemokine receptor pharmacology in multiple disease indications. I think we now have a world-class management team that places us in a very strong position to exploit the potential of our pipeline products.”
