SEOUL, South Korea, Nov. 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Eutilex Co. Ltd. today announced that it has appointed Agustin de la Calle, Ph.D., as chief business officer. In this capacity, Dr. de la Calle will focus on the establishment of licensing, co-development, joint research and investment opportunities involving Eutilex’s preclinical and clinical-stage pipeline of immuno-oncology candidates. He will report to Byoung S. Kwon, Ph.D., the company’s founder and CEO.
Dr. de la Calle has close to 20 years of business development experience with international companies in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. His expertise encompasses a wide range of business transactions involving platform technologies, therapeutics and diagnostics with a focus on oncology products.
“Our immuno-oncology programs are at a development point where we are attracting the attention of multiple pharma companies,” said Dr. Kwon. “Agustin has the right experience and industry relationships to help Eutilex as we aim to broaden our work outside of Korea. This includes our adoptive T cell therapy technology, which has produced product candidates that are advancing into mid-stage studies. We have seen excellent results with a high degree of manufacturing success and a low degree of toxicity that is often associated with these types of therapeutics. Under Agustin’s leadership, we will evaluate partnership opportunities for the development of this technology in the U.S., EU and Asian markets. In addition, we will explore a range of business opportunities for our preclinical antibodies that target the immune check point inhibitors and activators for oncology indications.
Prior to joining Eutilex, Dr. de la Calle was an executive consultant for Korea Health Industry Development Institute, a division of the South Korean government that supports Korean companies in market entry activities, product partnering and financing in the U.S. and Europe. Previously, he served as vice president of business development for Gemmus Pharmaceuticals. Earlier in his career, he was vice president of corporate and business development at The NDA Group, a company that has facilitated development of more than a third of the pharmaceutical products approved in Europe.
Dr. de la Calle has also served as head of business development at Innate Pharma, S.A. (France), where among other key accomplishments, advanced the development of alliances and licenses of strategic importance for the company’s successful IPO and its successful product launch. He was also director of business development at Micromet where he helped start the licensing business of the scFv IP portfolio. Micromet’s success with the BiTE approach led to its acquisition by Amgen for $1.2B.
Dr. de la Calle holds an M.S. in physics from the Freie University of Berlin, Germany. His Ph.D. in biochemistry was awarded from the Freie University of Berlin after he conducted research focused in protein crystallography and structure-function relations at Harvard Medical School. He conducted his postdoctoral work and business studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
About Eutilex Co. Ltd.
Based in Seoul, South Korea, Eutilex is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of anti-tumor T cell and antibody therapeutics for the treatment of cancers and autoimmune diseases. The most advanced drug candidate is an adoptive T Cell therapy, which has finished Phase 1 clinical trials and will begin Phase 2. Other pipeline candidates in development include monoclonal antibodies, EU-101, EU-102 and EU-103. For more information, please visit http://eutilex.com/eng/home.php.
Editor’s Note: Photograph of Dr. de la Calle available on request
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SOURCE Eutilex Co. Ltd.
