Engitix Ltd (‘Engitix’), a biotechnology company with a portfolio of drug discovery programmes in fibrosis and solid tumours using its proprietary patient-centric human extracellular matrix (ECM) platform, today announces the appointment of Christopher (Chris) Stevenson, Ph.D., as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO).
In this new role, Chris will be responsible for leading the company’s scientific and translational strategy, to advance a portfolio of novel therapies towards IND-enabling studies and eventually trials in patients with fibrotic diseases and solid tumours. He will also be responsible for leading Engitix’s R&D Pharma partnerships centered on its novel platform technologies.
Chris brings to Engitix a strong track record of driving innovation and developing talented teams to propel science into novel therapeutic and diagnostic solutions for patients. He joins from Johnson & Johnson, where he most recently served as Vice President, Global Head of Pharmaceutical Sciences for Interventional Oncology. In this role he was responsible for building a team to support discovery through early development programs and delivering a portfolio of clinical-stage assets, which included multiple cancer immunotherapies and the licensing of NBTXR3 from Nanobiotix.
Prior to this role, Chris headed discovery and translational biology units at Respivert, Novartis and Roche. Over his career, Chris has led the discovery or contributed to the development of over 10 drug candidates aiming to treat fibrosis, inflammation or cancers, as well as authoring over 60 peer reviewed papers and patents.
He received his Doctorate and Bachelor of Science degrees from the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA.
Dr Giuseppe Mazza, co-founder and CEO of Engitix, said, “I am delighted to welcome Chris to Engitix at this pivotal time in the company’s development. After multiple years of platform validation with Pharma partnerships and internal activities, we have unlocked key drivers of disease progression using our proprietary human ECM platform. We are now progressing towards the development of potential breakthrough therapies for people suffering from fibrosis and solid tumours.
“Chris’s experience and knowledge in delivering clinical therapies and diagnostic solutions in these devastating diseases will serve as a catalyst to transform Engitix from a platform company to a multi-asset preclinical stage biopharma company. We will also continue to expand our ECM platform discovery capabilities and patient-centric omics proprietary dataset.”
Dr Christopher Stevenson, CSO of Engitix, said, “Engitix is at a very exciting stage, and I look forward to contributing to the company’s strategic development as it continues to evolve from a technology platform to a multi-asset, biopharma company. I am impressed by Engitix’s ECM platform that can be used to discover and validate novel targets and biomarkers to support the development of innovative therapies for patients with fibrotic diseases and solid tumours.”
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