Valo Therapeutics Appoints Experienced Life Sciences Executive Anthony Giovinazzo to Board

HELSINKI, June 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Valo Therapeutics Oy (ValoTx), the developer of novel, adaptable immunotherapy platforms for cancer and infectious diseases, today announced the appointment of an accomplished life sciences executive. Anthony Giovinazzo will bring his considerable track record of capital raising, drug development, and company leadership in North America to the company's Board of Directors. In addition to his general Board role, Anthony will also join the GNC and Audit Committees.

ValoTx's CEO, Paul Higham, said, "I am delighted to welcome Anthony Giovinazzo on to our Board. Anthony has outstanding credentials in life sciences capital markets for his deal making abilities and his leadership of the unprecedented Cynapsus $841m trade sale in 2016. It's a tremendous validation of the quality of ValoTx, and the potential of our immunotherapy platforms to transform medicine, to secure someone as visionary, and as passionate to make a difference to patients, as Anthony."

ValoTx's Board Member Anthony Giovinazzo said, "I'm thrilled to join ValoTx's talented team. My motivation has always been to make the most of promising new medicines, and to do the right thing for the patient. Just like in neurology, where at Cynapsus we developed the FDA approved medicine for motor fluctuations in Parkinson's disease, in oncology and infectious disease there's still too much unmet medical need. If we can help patients, we should try, and ValoTx's immunotherapy platforms offer the opportunity to really make a difference."

About Mr. Giovinazzo

A major part of Anthony J. Giovinazzo's career has been focussed on the late-stage drug development and commercialization of therapeutics for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and neuropathic pain. He has received international, and national, awards for his leadership as President and CEO of specialty pharmaceutical company Cynapsus Therapeutics Inc., which he built to a phase 3 partially completed, tier one syndicate NASDAQ IPO. Cynapsus was acquired in 2016, for a then record Canadian $841 million (USD $635 million at time of the transaction) all cash trade sale transaction. He is also executive chairman of Kalgene Inc.

Anthony is a Chartered Director, and Audit Committee certified, with an Executive Program in pharmaceutical strategy from the Harvard Business School, Boston, and an MBA from IMD, Geneva.

For a short film about Anthony Giovinazzo and the Cynapsus Therapeutics M&A see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttNHKUHT-3w

About ValoTx

Valo Therapeutics Oy (Helsinki) is an immunotherapy company that is developing innovative immunotherapy approaches against cancer and infectious disease. The ValoTx lead platform, PeptiCRAd (Peptide-coated Conditionally Replicating Adenovirus), was developed out of the laboratory of Professor Vincenzo Cerullo at the University of Helsinki. It turns oncolytic adenoviruses into targeted tissue specific cancer vaccines without the need to generate and manufacture multiple genetically modified viruses. The company is also developing PeptiENV and PeptiVAX, among other neoantigen strategies, in collaboration with Professor Cerullo. PeptiENV is expected to improve the therapeutic response to oncolytic enveloped viruses in the treatment of multiple forms of cancer, while PeptiVAX is a program to develop a novel, adaptable anti-infectives vaccination platform. The lead PeptiVAX project is a T-cell pan-Coronavirus vaccine. The company's PeptiCHIP technology enables the rapid and accurate identification of tumor antigens. A film explaining the PeptiCRAd technology can be found here.

Contacts

Valo Therapeutics Oy
Matthew Vaughan
Email: info@valotx.com

Scius Communications (for ValoTx)
Katja Stout / Daniel Gooch
Email: katja@sciuscommunications.com / daniel@sciuscommunications.com