Cleave Biosciences Promotes Kanya Rajangam to Chief Medical Officer

BURLINGAME, Calif., Jan. 6, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Cleave Biosciences today announced the promotion of Kanya Rajangam, M.D., Ph.D., to chief medical officer. Dr. Rajangam will continue to oversee Cleave's ongoing and future clinical trials to evaluate drug candidate CB-5083 in hematological and solid tumor malignancies, and design clinical trials for the company's other internally discovered, novel oncology compounds.  She joined Cleave as vice president, clinical development in 2015.

"Oncology drug development has become more complex given the tumor heterogeneity that is observed after patients receive standard-of-care agents, as well as the number of agents available today. Our drugs are designed to have pleiotropic effects and Kanya strategically designs our programs to position our compounds to address unmet needs in this changing landscape," said Laura Shawver, chief executive officer of Cleave Biosciences. "Kanya brings a wealth of experience to Cleave and we are all inspired by her drive and passion to help people with difficult to treat cancers."

"We've made significant progress with the clinical program for CB-5083 and I'm looking forward to our data readout in 2017 that will set the course for future trials. I am also eager to initiate the clinical program for our next compound that targets the AAA ATPase family of enzymes and to engage leading research oncologists to present new investigative therapies to patients," said Dr. Rajangam.

Dr. Rajangam has a decade of oncology drug development experience including advancing early- and late-stage clinical programs. Prior to Cleave, Dr. Rajangam worked at Onyx Pharmaceuticals where she played a key role in the clinical development and global regulatory submissions of the multiple myeloma drug KYPROLIS® (carfilzomib). Dr. Rajangam also worked at Exelixis as associate medical director, where she designed multiple early phase oncology studies in various therapeutic areas including studies with COMETRIQ® (cabozantinib) and COTELLIC® (cobimetinib). Throughout her career, Dr. Rajangam has worked closely with pharmaceutical partners including Amgen, Sanofi-Aventis, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Genentech/Roche in moving compounds to the next stage of development.

After earning her medical degree from St. John's Medical College in Bangalore, India, Dr. Rajangam completed a surgical residency at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, India. She then earned a doctorate in biomedical engineering from Northwestern University.

Cleave's CB-5083 is a first-in-class, oral inhibitor of p97, a critical enzyme that controls various aspects of protein homeostasis. P97 inhibition is a novel approach that has the potential to treat a wide range of cancers, including both solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. CB-5083 is currently being evaluated in two Phase 1 trials in patients with advanced disease and no standard of care:  CLC-101 in patients with solid tumors, and CLC-102 in patients with lymphoid hematologic malignancies, including multiple myeloma. CB-5083 has been granted Orphan Drug Designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of multiple myeloma.

About Cleave Biosciences
Biopharmaceutical company Cleave Biosciences is a pioneer in the discovery and development of drugs that target protein homeostasis systems and have the potential to transform the treatment of people with difficult to treat solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. The company is privately held and located in Burlingame, California. For additional information, visit www.cleavebio.com.

KYPROLIS® is a registered trademark of Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
COMETRIQ® is a registered trademark of Exelixis, Inc.
COTELLIC® is a registered trademark of Genentech USA, Inc.

SOURCE Cleave Biosciences

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