Alphina Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing a best-in-class NAMPT inhibitor for the treatment of a range of solid tumor indications, today announced that it has appointed Marc Damelin, Ph.D., as Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Damelin possesses extensive industry experience in oncology drug discovery and development across a variety of mechanisms of action. He has served in key scientific leadership roles at leading oncology-focused companies for more than 17 years and made important contributions to the discovery of multiple platform technologies and clinical compounds that resulted in several high-value partnerships.
Alphina’s approach to NAMPT inhibition leverages several novel insights and a synthetic lethality strategy to significantly increase the therapeutic index of its small molecules. Unlike other programs previously in the clinic against this target, the company has developed a proprietary patient selection assay to identify the significant percentage of patients with non-small cell lung, small cell lung, colorectal, ovarian, and other solid tumors which are substantially more likely to respond to its drug candidates. Alphina has also engineered and optimized its molecules to mitigate the toxicities associated with previous NAMPT inhibitors.
“As we work toward advancing our lead NAMPT inhibitor program into the clinic, now is the perfect time to add someone with Marc’s impressive scientific experience and drug development track record,” said Nick Galli, Alphina’s Chief Executive Officer. “We are thrilled to welcome Marc to the leadership team and will lean on his expertise to guide our NAMPT inhibitor program. At the same time, Marc’s skill in drug discovery and development will prove valuable as we look to expand our portfolio by exploring new targets, programs, and modalities.”
Dr. Damelin most recently served as Vice President and Head of Biology at Mersana Therapeutics, a Cambridge, MA-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing ADCs for cancers with high unmet medical need. During his tenure at Mersana, he played a key role in the discovery of novel ADC platform technologies and clinical-stage compounds, three of which have advanced into the clinic. His work was leveraged to create three partnerships that generated $170MM in upfront payments: an asset-based partnership with GSK and platform-based partnerships with Merck-Serono and Janssen (J&J). Prior to joining Mersana, Dr. Damelin spent a decade with Pfizer in the company’s Oncology Research Unit, where he was the discovery project leader for multiple programs that advanced into the clinic and where he ultimately led the unit’s ADC discovery efforts from target validation into clinical development.
“Having had the opportunity to work on cutting-edge approaches to oncology drug discovery and development for the past 17 years, it is clear to me that Alphina’s data-driven, multi-pronged approach has great therapeutic potential,” said Dr. Damelin. “Not only has the company created compounds with the potential to overcome the limitations of previous NAMPT inhibitor programs, but it has developed a proprietary patient selection assay to pair the drug candidate with those patients most likely to benefit from treatment. I look forward to working with the talented team at Alphina to create and execute a development plan that maximizes both the opportunity for success and the overall benefit to patients.”
About Alphina Therapeutics
Alphina Therapeutics is a biotech company developing a best-in-class small molecule inhibitor of NAMPT to treat a variety of solid tumors. Founded by world-class scientists and backed by a strong investor syndicate of venture capitalists, the company is also developing a proprietary assay to enable selection of patients whose tumors harbor a specific perturbation which make their tumor exquisitely sensitive to Alphina’s compounds. A significant percentage of all solid tumor patients display this perturbation, positioning them as potential candidates for treatment with the company’s drug candidate. Learn more at: www.alphinatx.com.
