Sutro Appoints Lobacki as Director; Leonard, Krishnan & Levy as Advisors

SAN FRANCISCO, April 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Sutro Biopharma Inc. is adding an expert in drug commercialization to its board of directors, appointing clinical and scientific advisors and promoting a key executive as it moves closer to clinical development of STRO-001, an antibody drug conjugate to treat B-cell hematologic malignancy.

The company today named Crestovo CEO and COO Joseph M. Lobacki to its board of directors. Mr. Lobacki previously served as chief commercial officer of Medivation, where he achieved over $1B in annual sales for Xtandi^â, a prostate cancer drug. He also was senior vice president and general manager for Genzyme's $650M global hematology and organ transplant business and has held senior positions at Idera Pharmaceuticals, Micromet, SangStat Medical Corporation, Cell Pathways, and Rhône-Poulenc Rorer.

Clinical Advisory Board

Sutro's first two clinical advisory board members are Dr. John Leonard, Associate Dean of Clinical Research, Richard T. Silver Distinguished Professor of Hematology and Medical Oncology and Vice Chairman of the Weill Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine; and Dr. Amrita Krishnan, Professor of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation and Associate Director of the Medical Education & Training Program in the Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation at the City of Hope.

Dr. Leonard is a leading authority on lymphoma and Dr. Krishnan is Director of the Judy and Bernard Briskin Center for Multiple Myeloma Research at City of Hope. Earlier in April, Sutro announced that STRO-001 demonstrated potent anti-tumor activity in multiple myeloma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and mantle cell lymphoma tumor models while reducing the potential for toxic secondary effects on adjacent healthy cells, according to findings presented at the American Association for Cancer Research's annual meeting.

Scientific Advisory Board

Sutro is appointing cancer immunotherapy expert Dr. Ronald Levy to its scientific advisory board.  Dr. Levy is the Robert K. and Helen K. Summy Professor and Director of the Lymphoma Program at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Levy's research produced the first successful monoclonal anti-idiotypic antibody cancer treatment, which paved the way for rituximab (Rituxan®) to be developed for B-cell lymphoma treatment. His research has been recognized by organizations such as the American Cancer Society, American Society of Clinical Oncology, Lymphoma Foundation, Lymphoma Research Foundation and American Society of Hematology.  Dr. Levy is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.

Nicki Vasquez Promotion

Sutro is promoting Dr. Nicki J. Vasquez to senior vice president, alliance management, portfolio strategy & operations, in recognition of her leadership in rapidly advancing STRO-001 from preclinical development to an IND submission planned for the fourth quarter of 2017.  Sutro expects to launch STRO-001 clinical trials in the first quarter of 2018.

Dr. Vasquez, formerly vice president, alliance and project management, will continue to be responsible for expeditiously moving drugs through research, manufacturing and clinical trials.

About Sutro Biopharma

Sutro Biopharma Inc., located in South San Francisco, develops best-in-class antibody drug conjugate (ADC) and multi-specific antibody-based therapeutics for cancer therapy, including immuno-oncology therapies. Sutro's discovery and development efforts are driven by its proprietary Xpress CF™ and Xpress CF+™ platforms, a biochemical synthesis system that enables rapid and systematic evaluation of protein structure-activity relationships, as well as rapid and predictable scalability for manufacturing in Sutro's facility. In addition to developing its own drug candidate pipeline, which is focused on mono- and bi-specific ADCs, Sutro is collaborating with select pharmaceutical and biotech companies to discover and develop novel therapeutics. 

Media Contacts:
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Amiad Finkelthal
Russo Partners
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SOURCE Sutro Biopharma Inc.