Maverick Therapeutics Announces Key Executive Promotions to Drive Continued Growth of the Company’s Pipeline of Next Generation T Cell Therapeutics in Immuno-Oncology

BRISBANE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Maverick Therapeutics Inc., an immuno-oncology company pioneering next-generation redirected T cell therapeutics, today announced key promotions on its executive leadership team:

• Robert DuBridge, Ph.D., has been promoted to Executive Vice President, Research, and Chief Technology Officer
• Chad May, Ph.D., has been promoted to Senior Vice President, Research & Development

Dr. DuBridge is a co-founding scientist of Maverick and has led the design of the proprietary COBRA™ platform for the development of conditionally active T cell engaging therapies for solid tumor indications. Dr. May joined the company at its inception in January 2017 and has led the generation of data validating the novel COBRA mechanism of action and demonstrating preclinical proof of concept of a marked therapeutic window in the solid tumor target arena.

“This is a truly exciting time for Maverick. Bob and Chad have partnered to establish and validate our novel platform in a remarkably short period of time,” said Maverick Chief Executive Officer Jim Scibetta. “They are both proven scientific leaders in the field of T cell engaging therapeutics – Bob in antibody engineering and platform design and Chad in immunology and preclinical tumor models. They have built off of their own expertise at Maverick, assembling and directing world-class teams of scientists that are working to advance and accelerate our development pipeline.”

Dr. DuBridge is a leader in the emerging field of T cell engaging therapeutics. In 2010, he founded Full Spectrum Genetics (FSG) to develop a novel, high throughput mutation profiling system to create detailed structural maps of protein binding sites. In 2015, FSG developed the S4 system for rapidly creating affinity matured antibodies from selected single substitution CDR libraries. Prior to FSG, Dr. DuBridge led the New Technologies and Antibody Engineering groups at Eos and then PDL Biopharma. During this time, his group humanized numerous therapeutic antibodies and developed a new antibody engineering platform called PxP. Dr. DuBridge was one of the founding scientists of Cell Genesys, Inc., where he was responsible for setting up systems to create genetic knockouts in primary human cells. He later became the Director of the Massively Parallel Signature Sequencing (MPSS) project at Lynx Therapeutics and his group was responsible for setting up the first next generation sequencing platform. Dr. DuBridge received his B.A. in Biology from the University of California at San Diego and his Ph.D. in Genetics from Stanford University. He performed his postdoctoral studies at Genentech.

Dr. May is leading the preclinical pharmacology and development work on Maverick’s novel T cell retargeting platform. He has more than fifteen years of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, with deep expertise in target biology/selection, recombinant antibody therapeutics and translational medicine. Prior to joining Maverick, Dr. May was the Senior Director of Targeted Immunotherapy at Pfizer in the Oncology Research Unit where he spearheaded several bispecific antibody programs from inception to Phase 1 clinical trials. Previous to that, he held roles of increasing responsibility at ImClone Systems, which was acquired by Eli Lilly in 2008. During his time there, Dr. May was a project team leader for several early stage therapeutics antibody programs. He received his Ph.D. in Immunology from the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences in a joint program with the Sloan Kettering Institute.

About COBRA™ Therapeutic Platform

The company’s proprietary COBRA™, or COnditional Bispecific Redirected Activation, molecules are conditionally active and highly potent T cell engaging molecules, each targeted to well validated tumor antigens expressed on specific solid tumors. COBRAs are engineered to be inactive prodrugs when initially administered systemically. The prodrugs are capable of binding to their cognate antigen at the tumor, and once bound, subject to proteolytic cleavage. This results in domain rearrangements allowing for direct engagement of and activation of T cells. COBRAs are designed to remain as prodrugs outside of the tumor microenvironment where, when bound to target antigens and not subject to the same proteolytic tumor microenvironment, they remain incapable of engaging and activating T cells. COBRA molecules have demonstrated tumor microenvironment dependent T cell mediated regressions of established solid tumors in preclinical models; the uncleavable control form of the prodrug, by comparison, has no anti-tumor activity.

About Maverick Therapeutics

Maverick Therapeutics is pioneering the next generation of redirected T cell therapeutics in immuno-oncology. Maverick’s highly innovative platform is designed to deliver potent activity with increased tumor specificity and reduced toxicity, resulting in superior therapeutics for cancer patients and improved clinical success. Maverick was founded by MPM Capital in 2016 through a spin-out from Harpoon Therapeutics. In early 2017 Maverick announced a series of transactions providing $125 million of committed funding from Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd, MPM BioVentures 2014 and MPM Capital’s UBS Oncology Impact Fund. For further information, please visit www.mavericktx.com.

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