K36 Therapeutics Announces Appointment of Benjamin Winograd, MD, PhD, as Chief Medical Officer

Additional industry veterans recruited to strengthen clinical, translational medicine and preclinical teams 

K36 positioned to expand the opportunity for KTX-1001 to earlier treatment lines in multiple myeloma and the treatment of solid tumor indications

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 15, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- K36 Therapeutics, Inc. ("K36"), a clinical-stage biotech company focused on developing its first-in-class MMSET inhibitor KTX-1001 for t(4;14) multiple myeloma, today announced that Benjamin Winograd, MD, PhD, has been appointed Chief Medical Officer to lead the Medical and Clinical teams. Dr. Winograd joins K36 with a wealth of experience and a remarkable track record of bringing innovative medicines for hematological and solid tumor disease treatments to patients.

"Recruiting a leader with Dr. Winograd's expertise, reputation and track record of advancing transformative therapies validates the potential opportunity that KTX-1001 will deliver," said Terry Connolly, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of K36. "Benjamin will play an integral role in our continued advancement of the Phase 1 study of KTX-1001 and in supporting our translational medicine team in preparing for KTX-1001's potential use in combination with other multiple myeloma standard-of-care agents, and in earlier lines of therapy."

Dr. Winograd's esteemed reputation in the multiple myeloma field stems from a distinguished career at Celgene where, as Vice President of Clinical Development and Head of Clinical Hematology/Oncology, he led the successful development and approval of transformative therapies REVLIMID^®, POMALYST^® and Abecma^®. Prior to Celgene, Dr. Winograd held roles of increasing responsibility at Schering Plough, Pharmacia and BMS that led to the approvals of Temodar and Taxol. Most recently, Dr. Winograd was the Chief Medical Officer at Lava Therapeutics B.V. Dr. Winograd brings over 30 years of industry experience to K36, and will lead clinical development, translational medicine, regulatory affairs, and medical affairs. 

"K36 is embarking on a new precision medicine approach to personalized oral therapies that has the potential to transform the industry," said Dr. Winograd. "The search for a selective MMSET inhibitor for myeloma patients has been ongoing for over a decade and I am excited to continue the development of KTX-1001 for multiple myeloma in high-risk patients with translocation t(4;14) and to explore additional unmet needs in solid tumors."

K36 also announced today that it has bolstered its clinical, translational medicine and preclinical teams with the recent appointments of Soo Bang as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Operations, Erin Flynt, PhD, as Executive Director of Translational Medicine, Sanjana Miskin as Director of Clinical Science, Julie Vazquez as Director of Clinical Operations, and Lan Xu, PhD, as Vice President of Preclinical and Translational Development.

Soo Bang brings over 25 years of industry experience at Pfizer, Celgene and Bristol Myers Squibb. At Celgene, Ms. Bang was part of the business development group where she managed complex alliances and played key roles in business strategy and late-stage asset transitions and most recently, led integration efforts at BMS.

Erin Flynt, PhD, brings over 10 years of Translational Medicine, Communications, and Strategy experience in myeloma to the company based on her tenure at Celgene and Bristol Myers Squibb. During this time, she led various disease-focused strategic projects and collaborated with Dr. Winograd in the development of several multiple myeloma agents.

Sanjana Miskin has extensive clinical development experience across early and late-stage studies. She previously supported Phase 1 studies in heme malignancies and prostate cancer, global Phase I and Phase III studies in solid tumors, and an NDA approval while at Lava Therapeutics, GlaxoSmithKline and TG Therapeutics, respectively.

Julie Vazquez joins the company with nearly 20 years of healthcare and clinical research experience through her in-hospital research work as a registered nurse at the MUSC General Clinical Research Center, and extensive experience in monitoring and clinical trial management with both CROs and sponsors. Most recently, she led the BCMA and CD-70 cell therapy study teams at Allogene Therapeutics.

Lan Xu, PhD, will lead the preclinical effort to expand KTX-1001 into the treatment of solid tumors. Dr. Xu has over 20 years of experience in cancer research, drug discovery, and translational sciences, and has had roles of increasing responsibility at Blueprint Medicines, Foghorn Therapeutics, and Ikena Oncology supporting multiple targeted oncology and immuno-oncology programs in early clinical development.

These appointments further strengthen K36's ability to exploit the full potential of KTX-1001. K36 remains committed to developing KTX-1001 for t(4;14) multiple myeloma and will continue its journey of developing novel agents and improving patient outcomes for those underserved by currently available therapies. Despite multiple new drug introductions into the multiple myeloma armamentarium, patients with a t(4;14) translocation have not benefitted as much as other multiple myeloma patient populations.

About KTX-1001
KTX-1001 is a novel, first-in-class, potent, and selective inhibitor of the catalytic activity of MMSET. It is an investigational and orally administered small molecule being developed initially for the treatment of relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma, with a focus on patients with the t(4;14) translocation.

About the KTX-1001 Phase 1 Clinical Trial
The Phase 1 clinical trial is a single-arm, open-label study in subjects with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma. It is a multi-part clinical trial with dose escalation followed by an expansion cohort in patients with the genetic translocation t(4;14) to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and preliminary efficacy of different doses of KTX-1001. For more information and participating centers visit NCT05651932. 

About K36 Therapeutics, Inc.
Founded in February 2021, K36 is a privately held biotech company backed by Atlas Venture, F-Prime Capital, Eight Roads Capital, Nextech and Bristol Myers Squibb. Our mission is to translate epigenetic modulation of oncogenic pathways into first-in-class small molecule therapeutics for the benefit of cancer patients worldwide. For more information, please visit www.k36tx.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

SOURCE K36 Therapeutics