ORIC Pharmaceuticals Appoints Lori Friedman, PhD, as Chief Scientific Officer

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., July 9, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- ORIC Pharmaceuticals, a privately held, clinical-stage oncology company focused on developing cancer treatments that address mechanisms of therapeutic resistance, announced that Lori Friedman, PhD, has been named Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Friedman will serve on the executive leadership team and lead ORIC's research and preclinical development efforts.

"We are thrilled to continue attracting top talent to ORIC's leadership team," said Jacob Chacko, MD, Chief Executive Officer. "Lori has a multi-decade record of leadership in oncology drug discovery and translation, including identifying and advancing multiple novel programs into the clinic that eventually achieved regulatory approval and commercialization. Lori's scientific acumen, leadership abilities and ability to collaborate closely on clinical development plans will be critical to continuing to advance and expand ORIC's pipeline."

"I am excited to join ORIC and work with its accomplished founders, scientists and management team to further the mission of overcoming resistance in cancer," said Dr. Friedman. "Resistance remains a significant obstacle to achieving better outcomes for patients with cancer, and ORIC is at the forefront of addressing these challenges. I look forward to furthering the development of ORIC-101 and continuing to grow the pipeline of novel therapies aiming to benefit patients with cancer."    

Dr. Friedman brings to ORIC over 20 years of experience in cancer research, including expertise in cancer target discovery and validation, signal transduction, cancer genetics, drug discovery, pharmacology and biomarkers. During her 15-year career at Genentech, she held roles of increasing responsibility and was most recently head of translational oncology for Genentech Research and Early Development (gRED), where her team advanced more than 20 programs into clinical development. Dr. Friedman also sat on multiple cross-functional leadership teams tasked with strategic and technical review of Genentech's oncology research pipeline projects.

Prior to Genentech, Dr. Friedman held various scientific leadership roles at Exelixis. She is an inventor on 24 issued patents and author on 88 peer-reviewed publications.  She completed post-doctoral work at the University of Washington and at Cambridge University and earned a PhD in molecular and cell biology from UC Berkeley.

About ORIC Pharmaceuticals

ORIC Pharmaceuticals is a privately held, clinical-stage oncology company focused on developing cancer treatments that address mechanisms of therapeutic resistance. ORIC's lead program, ORIC-101, is a potent and selective small molecule antagonist of the glucocorticoid receptor, which has been linked to treatment resistance to multiple classes of anti-cancer therapeutics across a variety of solid tumors. ORIC's pipeline also includes an orally-available small molecule inhibitor of CD73, as well as other undisclosed programs targeting mechanisms of oncology therapeutic resistance. ORIC's scientific founders are Charles Sawyers, MD, and Scott Lowe, PhD, who have long records of discovering novel targets in cancer that have led to innovative treatments. The company has assembled strong leadership and scientific teams and a board with extensive experience in drug development and financing. ORIC is funded by leading biotechnology investors, including The Column Group, Topspin Partners, OrbiMed, EcoR1, Fidelity, Foresite and others. ORIC is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.

For more information, please contact:

Krys Corbett

650-388-5622

[email protected]

http://oricpharma.com/

SOURCE ORIC Pharmaceuticals