Glycotope Appoints Dr. Alfredo Zurlo as Chief Medical Officer

BERLIN, April 29, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Glycotope GmbH, a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company built on world-leading glyco-biology expertise, today announces the appointment of Dr. Alfredo Zurlo as Chief Medical Officer.

Dr. Zurlo is an oncologist with many years clinical experience and a proven track record in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. His last role was at Mologen AG where he was Chief Medical Officer and Member of the Executive Board. Previously Dr. Zurlo held various positions at F Hoffmann La Roche and Roche SA, including Senior International Medical Leader Director Oncology and Medical Director Oncology. Before that, he was a medical advisor for the European Organisation for the Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC). Dr. Zurlo completed his oncology and radio oncology training at the University of Rome.

Paul G. Higham, Chief Executive Officer, commented: "We are delighted that Alfredo has decided to join Glycotope. He has an exceptionally strong background in oncology both in a clinical setting and within companies developing and marketing treatments for cancer. His experience in designing and managing clinical trials will be invaluable as we continue to advance our mature and growing pipeline of proprietary cancer therapies including our oncology lead PankoMab-GEX™ which is currently in Phase 2b in ovarian cancer."

Dr. Alfredo Zurlo, Chief Medical Officer, said: "I am excited to be joining Glycotope. The company has a unique approach to the development of novel immuno-oncology candidates. Their proprietary glyco-biology platforms allow the generation of monoclonal antibodies with fully human glycosylation improving activity, drug characteristics and side effect profiles. Glycotope can also target carbohydrate epitopes to generate highly specific, novel targets. I very much look forward to working with the team to maximise the clinical potential of this powerful technology base."

Roland Sand, Chairman of the Board, added: "We are very pleased to further strengthen Glycotope's management team with the appointment of Alfredo as Chief Medical Officer. It underscores the importance of oncology as our core business where Glycotope is developing projects through clinical trials and plans to enter into co-development partnerships. Our strategic partnership and license agreement with Octapharma established in October last year, through which we received an initial payment of €80m, both validated and endorsed one of our core technologies and gave us the flexibility to execute on our oncology strategy."

About Glycotope 

Glycotope is a clinical stage immuno-oncology company built on world-leading glyco-biology expertise. The Company has a mature and growing pipeline of proprietary cancer therapies including PankoMab-GEX™ which is currently in a Phase 2b trial in ovarian cancer and has potential across cancer types and as a platform for the development of multiple further immuno-oncology products. Glycotope's innovative GlycoExpress™ technology enables the generation of high quality oncology and non-oncology candidates with fully human glycosylation improving activity, drug characteristics and side effect profiles. Its GlycoBody™ platform generates highly specific mAbs against carbohydrate epitopes found only on tumor cells.

Glycotope is based in Berlin with a highly specialised GMP manufacturing facility in Heidelberg. The Company has a strong financial base being well supported by the existing investors including the Strüngmann Family Office.

Contact:
Glycotope GmbH
Luisa Brünig
Phone: +49(0)30-9489-2588
Email: [email protected]

Consilium Strategic Communications
Chris Gardner, Jonathan Birt, Jessica Hodgson and Hendrik Thys
Phone: +44(0)20-3709-5700
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Glycotope GmbH