Gliknik Expands Clinical Development Team with New Senior Director and Adds Board Members

BALTIMORE, Feb. 19, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Gliknik Inc., a privately held biopharmaceutical company, today announced that it has expanded its team by adding a new Senior Director of Clinical Development and electing two new members to its Board of Directors. Gliknik is deepening its clinical staff and allocating resources to further advance GL-0817 and GL-0810, two cancer therapeutic vaccines. These clinical-stage vaccine candidates are designed to fight specific cancers by augmenting the body's immune response to tumors.

Jeffrey Herpst, R.N., joins Gliknik as Senior Director, Clinical Development. Mr. Herpst has 20 years' experience in clinical operations and has held clinical development roles of increasing responsibility, most recently at Zyngenia, Teva, and Human Genome Sciences. Before entering industry, Mr. Herpst was a Research Nurse for seven years at Johns Hopkins in the Division of Radiation Oncology. 

Richard Levy, M.D., has been elected to the Gliknik Board of Directors to further enhance the company's clinical resources.  Dr. Levy currently is EVP, Chief Drug Development and Medical Officer at Incyte Corporation, where he has built a department of approximately 140 people over 10 years. His team is responsible for all phases of clinical research and operations, biometrics and data management, medical writing, pharmacovigilance, regulatory affairs, and other vital drug development functions. Dr. Levy has filed approximately a dozen new drug applications (NDAs) during his career.

"The additions of Jeff to the Gliknik team and Rich to the Gliknik Board augment our ability to press forward with the clinical programs for GL-0817 and GL-0810," said David Block, Gliknik CEO. "They have extensive experience in clinical development and in working with pharma collaborators. As such, their perspectives will be invaluable as we identify the potential partners for these programs that are most likely to be successful in helping us advance these compounds."

Mark Lerner has also been elected to the Gliknik Board of Directors. Mr. Lerner is a co-founding Partner of Chesapeake Partners, a successful hedge fund based in Maryland. "We are absolutely thrilled to have Mark join the Gliknik Board," said Skip Klein, Gliknik Board member and Managing Director of Gauss Capital Advisors, LLC.  "Mark's excellent business judgment and demonstrated success in the investment world, in both representing and building value for investors, are important additions to the Gliknik Board."

About Immunomodulators: GL-0817 and GL-0810
Invented by one of the inventors of PD-1 targeted monoclonal antibodies, Gliknik's immunomodulators GL-0817 and GL-0810 are cancer therapeutic vaccines directed against MAGE-A3 and HPV-16 epitopes, respectively. The Gliknik immunomodulator drug candidates contain novel elements that lead to efficient delivery and processing of epitopes contained within the drugs. Publications from clinical researchers working independent of Gliknik have demonstrated epitope-specific CD4 and CD8 as well as peptide-specific antibody immune responses to GL-0817. One independently conducted clinical study, which incorporated GL-0817 with cellular therapy and adjuvants in patients with recurrent or high-risk multiple myeloma, was recently published online by Clinical Cancer Research. GL-0817 and GL-0810 have also been assessed in a dose-rising clinical study in patients with advanced Head and Neck Cancer. The safety and immunology effects in both trials support advancing these compounds in further clinical studies. The issued patents and patent applications for these compounds were in-licensed from The Mayo Clinic and from the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

About Gliknik Inc.
Gliknik is creating new therapies for patients with cancer and immune disorders.  In September 2013 Gliknik announced a significant license of GL-2045, a functional recombinant mimetic of pooled human IVIG, to Pfizer Inc. Gliknik's expertise is in modulation of the immune system to fight disease. Gliknik's lead clinical compound is the immune modulator GL-0817 for cancer, which is poised to enter Phase IIb clinical studies. Learn more at www.gliknik.com.

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" concerning the development and commercialization of Gliknik products, the potential benefits and attributes of such products, and Gliknik's expectations regarding its collaboration with Pfizer. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, assumptions and uncertainties that could cause actual future events or results to differ materially from such statements. These statements are made as of the date of this press release. Actual results may vary. Gliknik undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements for any reason.

SOURCE Gliknik Inc.