SOTIO Appoints Dr. Harald Fricke as Chief Medical Officer
PRAGUE, Czech Republic, February 05, 2019 / B3C newswire / -- SOTIO, a biotechnology company owned by PPF Group, announces today the appointment of Harald Fricke, M.D., Ph.D. as Chief Medical Officer (CMO). Dr. Fricke has more than 30 years of experience in the field of immuno-oncology research and clinical development of new cancer therapies. At SOTIO, he will be responsible for clinical strategy and leading the expansion of SOTIO’s clinical-stage pipeline.
Radek Spisek, CEO of SOTIO, commented: “We are very excited to welcome Dr. Fricke to our team. His long-term experience and successful track record in scientific research, drug development and regulatory strategy in immune-oncology will be extremely valuable for SOTIO.”
Commenting on his appointment, Dr. Fricke said: “I am joining SOTIO at a pivotal moment as SOTIO is initiating two important clinical trials: the first-in-human study with SO-C101, SOTIO’s IL-15 superagonist, and the pivotal trial with DCVAC/OvCa, an active cellular immunotherapy product for patients with ovarian cancer hold great promise. I am impressed by the clinical results of the two Phase II trials with DCVAC in 1st and 2nd line ovarian cancer and the preclinical data of SO-C101. I am excited to join SOTIO’s team and look forward to contributing with my knowledge and experience to advance SOTIO’s broad product pipeline.”
Dr. Harald Fricke graduated from the Medical University of Lübeck (Germany). He received a postgraduate clinical certification in internal medicine and specialized in nephrology and clinical immunology. During his time as a post-doc at the Institute of Chemical Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel) (1987-1990), he worked on the role of idiotypic networks in autoimmunity. After his habilitation at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich (Germany) in 1996, he moved to the pharmaceutical industry.
Dr. Harald Fricke has worked at SmithKline Beecham, GlaxoSmithKline, Baxter and Fresenius Biotech where he held management positions with increasing global R&D responsibility and in 2006 he was a Co-Founder of Apogenix (Heidelberg, Germany). Under his leadership as COO and CMO of Apogenix, an innovative platform was discovered and developed, which resulted in an extensive portfolio of immuno-oncology product candidates. In his scientific work, autoimmunity and tumor immunology are his specialist areas of expertise.
About SOTIO
SOTIO is an international biotechnology company leading the efforts of PPF Group to build a diverse biotechnology portfolio through its own research & development, collaborations, in-licensing, investments, mergers and acquisitions. The company is developing new medical therapies, focusing on the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases. The most advanced project is the SOTIO proprietary platform of active cellular immunotherapy (ACI) based on dendritic cells. SOTIO is conducting multiple Phase I to Phase III clinical trials verifying the safety and efficacy of its DCVAC products. SOTIO is also collaborating with NBE Therapeutics on the development of novel antibody-drug conjugate products (ADC), with Cytune Pharma on developing novel IL15-based immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer and with LDC and the Max Planck Society on an oncology program addressing a novel target in tumor metabolism. SOTIO has facilities in Europe, the United States, China and Russia.
SOTIO is a registered trademark of SOTIO a.s. in selected countries.
Contact
Richard Kapsa
Head of Communication
T: (+420) 224 174 448
M: (+420) 603 280 971
kapsa@sotio.com