SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Janux , a biopharmaceutical company developing novel T cell engager immunotherapies, today announced the appointment of Wayne Godfrey, M.D., as Chief Medical Officer, effective June 1, 2021. Dr. Godfrey will lead the clinical advancement of Janux’s pipeline of next-generation T cell engager immunotherapies designed to potentially treat multiple solid tumor indications, including metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), colorectal cancer (CRC), triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), urothelial cancer (UC), and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Dr. Godfrey brings more than 25 years of drug development, clinical strategy, and research experience in cancer immunology and immunotherapy at leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

“We are pleased to welcome Wayne to the Janux team as we look to advance our proprietary pipeline of next generation immunotherapies into clinical development,” said David Campbell, Ph.D., President and CEO of Janux Therapeutics. “Wayne has deep clinical development and leadership experience in the field of immuno-oncology, and I look forward to working closely with him on our goal to fulfill the potential of our TRACTr platform technology to transform the lives of cancer patients.”

“I am impressed with the thoughtful modular design of the TRACTr platform technology and Janux’s current drug product candidates, which are designed to deliver highly tumor-specific activation of T cell activity while incorporating crossover pharmacokinetics to minimize healthy tissue toxicity. I’ve hit the ground running and am looking forward to bringing Janux’s initial TRACTr product candidates into the clinic.”

Prior to joining Janux, Dr. Godfrey served as the Vice President of Clinical Development of IGM Biosciences, Inc., where he led the global clinical development of IGM’s emerging pipeline of proprietary bispecific T-cell engaging IgM antibodies. Prior to IGM, he served as Senior Director, Clinical Development at Kite Pharma, a biotechnology company and subsidiary of Gilead Sciences, where he led the CAR-T CD19-directed pivotal Phase 2 study, ZUMA-5. Dr. Godfrey also served as Chief Medical Officer at Etubics, and Senior Director, Clinical Research Oncology at Gilead where he advanced ZYDELIG® (idelalisib) through late-stage development, leading the design of global Phase 3 trials, and helping to obtain accelerated approval for its use for follicular lymphoma. Prior to Gilead, he worked as Vice President of Clinical Development at Bavaian-Nordic on Prostate and Breast cancer vaccines, and helped develop PROVENGE® (sipuleucel-T) at Dendreon. He earned a B.A. in biochemistry and molecular biology from UC Santa Barbara, an M.S. in biology from Stanford University, and an M.D. from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Dr. Godfrey completed his internal medicine residency and fellowships in clinical immunology, hematology, and bone marrow transplantation at Stanford University.

About Janux Therapeutics

Janux Therapeutics is an innovative biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation therapeutics based on its proprietary Tumor Activated T Cell Engager (TRACTr) platform technology to better treat patients suffering from cancer. Janux’s initial focus is on developing a novel class of T cell engagers (TCEs), and its lead product candidates are designed to target clinically validated drug targets. While TCE therapeutics have displayed potent anti-tumor activity in hematological cancers, developing TCEs to treat solid tumors have faced challenges due to the limitations of prior TCE technologies, namely (i) overactivation of the immune system leading to cytokine release syndrome, (ii) on-target, healthy tissue toxicities, and (iii) poor pharmacokinetics leading to short half-life. Janux is using its TRACTr platform technology to engineer product candidates designed to overcome these limitations. Janux is developing a broad pipeline with lead programs targeting prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and trophoblast cell surface antigen 2 (TROP2), with all of its programs currently in the IND-enabling or discovery stage.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210603005058/en/