CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom and NEW YORK, June 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Artios Pharma Limited, a clinical-stage biotech company pioneering the development of novel small molecule therapeutics that target the DNA damage response process in order to treat patients suffering from a broad range of cancers, announces the appointment of Samantha Truex, a seasoned biotechnology executive, to its Board of Directors, effective June 15th, 2022.
Pierre Legault, Chairman, Artios, said: “Sam brings a wealth of executive leadership experience from the biopharmaceutical industry, and we are pleased to welcome her to Artios’ Board of Directors. Her experience leading strategic business development activities will be invaluable as we continue to expand our deep pipeline of novel agents targeting the totality of the DDR.”
Samantha Truex, Independent Board Director at Artios, said: “I am excited to join the Artios board during this time of rapid growth and development. Artios has taken a leadership position in developing innovative drugs targeting the DNA damage response for tough to treat cancers, and I look forward to partnering with the company and the board to support them in their mission.”
Samantha Truex brings more than 25 years of executive leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, specializing in corporate development, product development and corporate strategy. She currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Upstream Bio, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on inflammatory and allergic diseases. She has held executive leadership roles at multiple venture-backed companies including Chief Executive Officer of Quench Bio, Chief Operating Officer of Synlogic and Chief Business Officer for Padlock Therapeutics. Sam was also Vice President of Corporate Development at Biogen where she led transactional business development activities and served as program executive for now-marketed products FAMPYRA,® ELOCTATE™ and ALPROLIX™. Sam also previously worked in Corporate Development at Genzyme, Chiron Diagnostics and Health Advances. Sam earned a Bachelor of Arts in biology from Dartmouth College, a Bachelor of Engineering in biomedical engineering from the Thayer School at Dartmouth and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Tuck School at Dartmouth. Sam is also on the boards of Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth and Life Science Cares.
About Artios
Artios is a clinical-stage biotech company pioneering the development of novel small molecule therapeutics that target the DDR process to treat patients suffering from a broad range of cancers. Artios is led by an experienced scientific and leadership team with proven expertise in DDR drug discovery, including the discovery and early development of the poly (adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor Olaparib. It has a unique partnership with Cancer Research UK, and collaborations with leading DNA repair researchers worldwide, such as The Institute of Cancer Research, London, the Netherlands Cancer Institute and the Crick Institute, London. Artios is building a pipeline of next-generation DDR programs to target hard to treat cancers, including its ATR inhibitor, ART0380, and the Polθ inhibitor, ART4215, as a monotherapy and with combination treatments. In December 2020, Artios entered into a collaboration agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany to identify and develop precision oncology medicines targeting nucleases. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany has the right to opt into exclusive development and commercialization of compounds on up to eight targets and Artios is to receive up to US$860 million in total milestones per target. In April 2021, Artios entered into a collaboration agreement with Novartis to identify DDR targets to use with Novartis’ proprietary radioligand therapies, with Artios receiving a US$20 million up-front payment in addition to near-term research funding to support the collaboration. Artios is eligible to receive up to $1.3 billion in discovery, development, regulatory and sales-based milestones in addition to royalty payments. Artios has raised US$320 million to date from investors and strategic partners, including the US$153 million Series C financing announced in July 2021. Artios is based at the Babraham Research Campus in Cambridge, UK, with an office in New York City, USA.
