SAN DIEGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Janux Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company developing a broad pipeline of novel immunotherapies by applying its proprietary technology to its Tumor Activated T Cell Engager and Tumor Activated Immunomodulator platforms, today announced the additions of Ronald W. Barrett, Ph.D., and Alana McNulty as members of the Company’s Board of Directors. Dr. Barrett is a scientist entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, founding and leading biopharmaceutical companies, including advancing research that has led to FDA approval of three drugs. Ms. McNulty has more than 30 years of experience in finance and business development for private and publicly traded biopharmaceutical companies.
“Ron has deep expertise in building and operating biotech companies and successfully bringing a portfolio of preclinical drug candidates into clinical studies, including advancing a drug through FDA approval, and Alana has exceptional experience in finance and business development for a wide range of biopharmaceutical companies,” said David Campbell, Ph.D., President and CEO of Janux Therapeutics. “The Board and I welcome their complementary expertise as we continue to build the Company and look to advance our programs into the clinic.”
Dr. Barrett is CEO and Chairman of Medikine, Inc., a preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company utilizing a proprietary platform to identify peptide mimetics of clinically relevant cytokines that interact with the broad class of heterodimeric cytokine receptors. Prior to Medikine he cofounded XenoPort, Inc., where he was the CEO and a Director for more than 15 years. Shortly after his tenure, XenoPort was acquired by Arbor Pharmaceuticals, LLC. Under his guidance, XenoPort completed multiple private and public financings, corporate partnerships, and advanced five in-house discovered compounds into human trials including mid- to late-stage clinical trials. He led the company’s efforts that resulted in the FDA approval of HORIZANT® (gabapentin enacarbil), the first and only non-dopaminergic drug approved for moderate to severe restless legs syndrome in the U.S. Prior to founding XenoPort, Dr. Barrett was Senior Vice President of Research at Affymax Research Institute, where he pioneered the development and use of new drug discovery technology – work that led to two FDA-approved medicines. He is currently a Director of Concert Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Quadriga Bioscience, Inc. Dr. Barrett co-authored more than 50 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals and is an inventor on more than 50 issued patents in the U.S. He received a B.S. degree in biology from Bucknell University and a Ph.D. degree in pharmacology from Rutgers University.
Over her career, Ms. McNulty has led or played a key role in transactions with an aggregate value greater than $2 billion, including private and public financings, mergers and acquisitions, corporate partnerships, and debt financings. She is currently Chief Business Officer of eFFECTOR Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on pioneering the development of a new class of oncology drugs known as selective translation regulator inhibitors (STRIs). She also served as Chief Financial Officer for eFFECTOR for more than eight years. Prior to eFFECTOR, Ms. McNulty served as Chief Financial Officer of a number of biopharmaceutical companies, including Lumena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (acquired by Shire plc), Excaliard Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (acquired by Pfizer Inc.), BrainCells Inc., and Elitra Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Prior to that, Ms. McNulty was Head of Corporate Development and a General Manager of a business unit at Advanced Tissue Sciences, Inc. Ms. McNulty received a B.A. in biology with high honors from UC Santa Barbara, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and an MBA from the Anderson School of Business at UCLA.
About Janux Therapeutics
Janux Therapeutics is an innovative biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation therapeutics based on applying its proprietary technology to its Tumor Activated T Cell Engager (TRACTr) and Tumor Activated Immunomodulator (TRACIr) platforms to better treat patients suffering from cancer. Janux’s initial focus is on developing a novel class of T cell engagers (TCEs), and its lead product candidates are designed to target clinically validated drug targets. While TCE therapeutics have displayed potent anti-tumor activity in hematological cancers, developing TCEs to treat solid tumors have faced challenges due to the limitations of prior TCE technologies, namely (i) overactivation of the immune system leading to cytokine release syndrome, (ii) on-target, healthy tissue toxicities, and (iii) poor pharmacokinetics leading to short half-life. Janux is using its TRACTr platform technology to engineer product candidates designed to overcome these limitations. Janux is developing a broad pipeline with lead TRACTr programs targeting prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and trophoblast cell surface antigen 2 (TROP2), and its lead TRACIr program targeting PD-L1xCD28, with all of its programs currently in the IND-enabling or discovery stage. For more information, please visit www.januxrx.com.
