Artios Pharma Announces Appointment of Professor Rajesh Chopra as Non-Executive Director

CAMBRIDGE, England, Feb. 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --

Artios Pharma Limited (Artios), a leading DNA Damage Response (DDR) company developing a broad pipeline of innovative treatments for cancer, today announced the appointment of Professor Rajesh Chopra as Non-Executive Director (NED).

In an exceptional career in Pharmaceutical R&D Professor Chopra has held a number of distinguished roles including Corporate Vice President of Translational Research at Celgene, where he led US and European teams of scientists in San Diego, San Francisco and Seville, and clinicians involved in taking agents from discovery to proof-of-concept clinical trials in oncology and immune/inflammatory diseases, as well as in stem cell therapies. From 2004–09 he was part of the Oncology leadership team at AstraZeneca where he established the Translational Medicine Group in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. There he was involved in taking six small molecules and two antibodies from discovery into clinical trials.

Currently as Head of the Division of Cancer Therapeutics and Director of the Cancer Research UK Cancer Therapeutics Unit at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, Professor Chopra brings a wealth of experience in haematological oncology, solid tumour biology, transplantation and cell therapies. He is an experienced scientist and clinical leader who has discovered and developed a number of novel cancer treatments, across different technologies such as small molecules, biologics and gene therapy. Professor Chopra trained in Medicine at University College London where he also got his PhD in Medicine, Cell and Molecular Biology.

Commenting on today's announcement Pierre Legault, Chairman of the Board of Directors, said: "On behalf of the Board I would like to welcome Raj to the Board of Directors, where we are very much looking forward to working with him to help shape Artios. Raj has an outstanding scientific track record in cancer research and his expertise in drug development and commercialisation will be invaluable as Artios progresses its pipeline of next generation DNA repair cancer therapies into the clinic. His insight and experience will be of tremendous help to the Company as we steer through the next few exciting years transitioning from research into development and clinically meaningful treatments."

Professor Rajesh Chopra, Head of Cancer Therapeutics at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, commented: "The technology Artios is developing will lead to an exciting new approach to the treatment of cancer, particularly in cancers of high unmet medical need. I look forward to supporting the Artios team and working with the Board in developing its pipeline of highly promising first-in-class DDR therapies. The inhibition of novel DNA repair targets like Polθ, the Company's lead programme, creates an opportunity for development as both monotherapy and in combination with existing and future cancer treatments."

About Artios Pharma Limited

Artios is a leading DNA Damage Response (DDR) company focused on developing first-in-class treatments for cancer. The Company, founded by SV Health Investors in 2016, is led by an experienced scientific and leadership team with proven expertise in DDR drug discovery. It has a unique partnership with Cancer Research UK (CRUK), and collaborations with leading DNA repair researchers worldwide, such as the National Centre for Biomolecular Research at Masaryk University. Artios is building a pipeline of next-generation DDR programmes to target hard to treat cancers. Backed by blue chip investors including: Arix Bioscience plc - Artios' largest shareholder, SV Health Investors, M Ventures, IP Group plc, AbbVie Ventures, Andera Partners (formerly EdRIP), LSP (Life Science Partners), Pfizer Ventures and Novartis Venture Fund (NVF). Artios is based at the Babraham Research Campus in Cambridge, UK. www.artiospharma.com