Phanes Therapeutics announces the appointment of Rita Laeufle, MD, PhD, as Chief Medical Officer

SAN DIEGO, May 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Phanes Therapeutics, Inc. (Phanes), a clinical stage biotech company focused on innovative drug discovery and development in oncology, today announced that it has appointed Rita Laeufle, MD, PhD, as Chief Medical Officer, effective June 1, 2023. Dr. Laeufle has more than 18 years of experience in clinical development in oncology and will oversee the clinical advancement of Phanes' pipeline.

"We are excited to announce the appointment of Dr. Laeufle as Chief Medical Officer of Phanes. Dr. Laeufle has played a key role in supporting our clinical programs during the past seven months as our Chief Medical Adviser," said Dr. Ming Wang, Founder and CEO. "Phanes has built a strong pipeline and initiated Phase I clinical trials for two lead molecules, PT199 for solid tumors and PT886 for gastric, gastroesophageal junction and pancreatic adenocarcinomas, respectively. The third lead molecule PT217 for small cell lung cancer and other neuroendocrine cancers is also expected to enter Phase I clinical trial soon. Dr. Laeufle's expertise will accelerate the clinical development of these programs. With Dr. Laeufle's appointment, Phanes is well positioned to make important impacts in delivering innovative therapies for cancer patients."

Dr. Laeufle is a board-certified surgical oncologist with extensive experience in drug development in oncology across the pharma and biotech industry. Prior to joining Phanes, Dr. Laeufle served as Chief Medical Officer at Imugene Biotech, responsible for developing B-cell activating immunotherapies (neoHERIZON study). Dr. Laeufle was also the Chief Medical Officer at Oncolytics, leading clinical development of immune-oncology studies from Phase I to registration pathway in breast and gastrointestinal cancers where she led the ongoing BRACELET-1 and GOBLET studies. Previously, Dr. Laeufle held several senior leadership positions, including Vice President of clinical development & medical affairs at SFJ Pharmaceuticals. Earlier Dr. Laeufle worked at Genentech as Senior Medical Director in medical affairs for gastrointestinal disease. She was responsible in her preceding role as Senior Medical Science Leader at Roche in Switzerland for bevacizumab in breast cancer, where she was the lead scientist to maintain the approval for the metastatic breast cancer indication for Avastin in combination with Paclitaxel. Other leadership roles Dr. Laeufle held in the industry were in pharmacovigilance for oncology and drug development for infectious disease at Novartis.

Dr. Laeufle completed general surgical training at Buckland Hospital in England, University Hospital Basel in Switzerland and "Staedtisches Krankenhaus" Ueberlingen in Germany. She was trained in surgical oncology at "Staedtisches Krankenhaus" Singen in Germany. Dr. Laeufle got her MD degree from medical school at Albert Ludwigs University Freiburg i.Br. Germany where she also received her PhD degree in oncology research on Erb-2/neu.

ABOUT PHANES THERAPEUTICS

Phanes Therapeutics, Inc. is a clinical stage biotech company focused on innovative drug discovery and development in oncology. Currently, it has three assets at clinical stage, including its best-in-class monoclonal antibody (mAb) program, PT199, and two first-in-class bispecific antibody programs, PT886 and PT217. Both PT886 and PT217 have been granted orphan drug designation by FDA. Its pipeline also includes humanized mAbs, biparatopics, and single-chain variable fragments (scFvs) against multiple tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) that are suitable for ADC and CAR-T applications, respectively.

The company has built a strong pipeline by leveraging its proprietary technology platforms: PACbody™ , SPECpair™  and ATACCbody™ to develop novel biologics that address high unmet medical needs in cancer. PACbody™, is a proprietary approach for constructing bispecific antibodies without using protein engineering so that the antibody molecules maintain native structures with superb CMC characteristics. SPECpair™ allows mAb-like manufacturability of bispecific antibodies with native IgG-like structures, and ATACCbody™ is a technology for targeting solid tumors using immuno-oncology molecules with modulated activities designed to minimize the risk of cytokine release syndrome.

For more information about Phanes Therapeutics, please visit www.phanesthera.com

For business development or media inquiries, please contact [email protected]

SOURCE Phanes Therapeutics