iOnctura strengthens leadership with appointments of Chief Business Officer and Board Chair

• Elizabeth Holt, with a proven track record of forging successful life sciences partnerships, appointed as Chief Business Officer (CBO)
• Dr Mark Velleca appointed as Board Chair, bringing considerable experience in company building and drug development

GENEVA and AMSTERDAM, March 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- iOnctura, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company combating neglected and hard-to-treat cancers, today announces the appointments of Elizabeth Holt as Chief Business Officer (CBO) and Dr Mark Velleca as Chair of the Board of Directors.

Elizabeth is a seasoned corporate strategist, company founder and senior leader, with a track record of successfully negotiated fundraises, partnerships and exits. Most recently she co-founded Aiolos Bio Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to respiratory disease. The company was acquired by GSK in February 2024 for a total value of $1.4B. She also played a key role in the strategy, fundraising and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activities at Gyroscope Therapeutics, which was acquired by Novartis for up to $1.5bn in 2022.

Prior to her career in biopharmaceuticals, she was an Associate Partner with McKinsey & Company where she advised senior management in life sciences and healthcare on a range of strategy, organization and M&A projects. She holds an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business and an MSc from the London School of Economics.

Dr. Mark Velleca is currently the CEO and Board Chair of Black Diamond Therapeutics (BDTX) and also serves as Board Chair of Myeloid Therapeutics. Mark served as CEO of G1 Therapeutics (GTHX) until 2021, when he took the company public and led the development of its first therapy (COSELA®) from IND filing to FDA approval. Mark was a co-founder and Senior Vice President of CGI Pharmaceuticals, where he managed the company from its inception through clinical trials of multiple drug candidates. After Gilead Sciences acquired CGI, he served as a Senior Advisor to Gilead in R&D Strategy and Corporate Development.

Earlier in his career, Mark was an attending physician at Yale New Haven Hospital and on the faculty of the Yale University School of Medicine. Mark earned an M.D. and Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis, and a B.S. from Yale University.

Catherine Pickering, CEO and co-founder of iOnctura said, 'Following our significant financing round in June last year, we continue to build a world-class leadership team to take iOnctura through into its next phase and beyond. Our team is carefully selected. Mark and Elizabeth have significant healthcare and corporate experience which will be invaluable as we progress our innovative pipeline through clinical development.'

Elizabeth Holt said, 'With my career background in clinical-stage biopharmaceutical companies, and having extensive knowledge of the life sciences industry, I was particularly drawn to iOnctura because of the pioneering spirit of the leadership team and the significant progress made by iOnctura in the advancement of roginolisib in a number of oncology indications. It's an exciting time to join them on this journey.'

Dr Velleca added, 'I have been following iOnctura's bold mission to redefine the PI3Kδ landscape. Roginolisib is the first highly selective PI3Kδ inhibitor in development that overcomes the selectivity liabilities of prior drugs for this promising target. I look forward to working with Catherine, the leadership team, and the board as the Company accelerates development of this program.'                                                               

About iOnctura

iOnctura is a clinical-stage precision oncology company combating neglected and hard-to-treat cancers with a pipeline of first-in-class small molecules. The bold new treatments extend lives and improve healthspans, changing the outlook for patients and their families. Lead asset, roginolisib, is an allosteric modulator of PI3Kδ with a unique chemical structure and binding mode. Allosteric modulation is a new archetype for precise inhibition of PI3Kδ, promising clinical activity without the detrimental tolerability seen with previous generations of inhibitors. Roginolisib is currently being investigated in multiple randomized Phase II studies in solid and haematological malignancies. iOnctura BV is headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands with its wholly owned Swiss subsidiary, iOnctura SA, located in Geneva, Switzerland. iOnctura is backed by specialist institutional investors including Syncona, M Ventures, Inkef Capital, EIC Fund, VI Partners, Schroders Capital and XGEN Venture.