PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 06, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vincerx Pharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: VINC), a biopharmaceutical company aspiring to address the unmet medical needs of patients with cancer through paradigm-shifting therapeutics, today announced that it will host a key opinion leader (KOL) webinar to discuss the data presented on the Company’s lead asset, VIP152, in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and diffuse large B-Cell lymphoma (DLBCL) at the 63rd American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting on Saturday, December 11, 2021 at 7:30pm Eastern Standard Time.
The webinar will feature presentations from KOLs John C. Byrd, M.D. (University of Cincinnati) and Rosa Lapalombella, Ph.D. (The Ohio State University) who will discuss the current treatment landscape and unmet medical need in treating patients suffering from chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and the VIP152 data presented earlier that day at the ASH Annual Meeting.
Vincerx Pharma’s Vice President of Translational Medicine, Melanie Frigault, Ph.D., will also discuss the VIP152 mechanism of action in lymphoma poster presented at ASH. VIP152 is a potent and highly selective CDK9 inhibitor optimized for intermittent intravenous treatment. VIP152’s differentiated profile for selectivity, potency, and durability has translated to early signals of clinical activity in Phase 1, notably in patient populations with high unmet medical needs including double-hit DLBCL. In addition, VIP152 has demonstrated on-target disruption of PTEFb function with durable reductions in kinase activity, mRNA and protein levels of key oncogenes including MYC and MCL-1.
A live Q&A session will follow the formal presentations. To register for the webinar, please click here.
John C Byrd, M.D. is the Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of Vincerx and an internationally known researcher and clinical specialist in leukemia and other hematologic malignancies. Dr. Byrd is currently the Department Chair, The Gordon and Helen Hughes Taylor Professor, University of Cincinnati. Previously, he was the D Warren Brown Chair of Leukemia Research at the Ohio State University College of Medicine.
Dr. Byrd’s research has shown that therapeutic agents such as rituximab, idelalisib, ibrutinib and acalabrutinib are effective against chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and has led efforts to understand how resistance develops to these agents. Dr. Byrd continues to study novel immune-based therapies for CLL. However, five years ago, he transitioned much of his experimental therapeutics effort toward acute myelogenous leukemia (AML); where he has been attempting to identify genomic-specific targeted therapies in the laboratory and translate them to clinical trials. He serves as the chief medical officer for Beat AML, a precision medicine effort.
Dr. Byrd received his medical degree in 1991 from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and then completed a fellowship at Walter Reed in hematology, oncology and bone marrow transplantation. Dr. Byrd also received a year of translational laboratory training at Johns Hopkins University.
Rosa Lapalombella, Ph.D. is Professor with Tenure at The Ohio State University (OSU) where she also serves as the Associate Director for Basic Research in the Division of Hematology.
Dr. Lapalombella has a strong history of translational medical research. Her research focus is on epigenetic alterations of cancer cells and the development of experimental therapeutics for hematologic disease. Her work has contributed to the translation of five therapeutic agents into clinical trials for CLL and has been reported in more than 60 articles in Cancer Discovery, Cancer Cell, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Leukemia and Blood. Dr. Lapalombella earned her Ph.D. from the University of Bologna, Italy and completed four years of postdoctoral training at the Ohio State University before joining the Faculty at OSU.
Melanie Frigault, Ph.D. is the Vice President of Translational Medicine of Vincerx. In the year before joining Vincerx, Dr. Frigault was the U.S. head of Translational Medicine at AstraZeneca with a strategic focus on precision medicine and accelerating clinical development using novel biomarker-based endpoints in hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. From 2016 to 2020, Dr. Frigault established a translational science department at Acerta Pharma in South San Francisco, CA to support development of CALQUENCE® in mantle cell lymphoma (2017) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (2019) with clinical biomarker data. Dr. Frigault held positions of increasing responsibility at AstraZeneca from 2011 to 2016 where she inserted science into the development of the portfolio ranging from target selection to phase 3 pivotal trials including biomarker discovery and companion diagnostic development. Dr. Frigault began her clinical research career at Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA where she developed biomarkers and drove preclinical collaborations to inform clinical development.
Dr. Frigault obtained her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from McGill University, Québec, Canada.
About Vincerx Pharma, Inc.
Vincerx Pharma, Inc. (“Vincerx”) is a clinical-stage life sciences company focused on leveraging its extensive development and oncology expertise to advance new therapies intended to address unmet medical needs for the treatment of cancer. Vincerx has assembled a management team of biopharmaceutical experts with extensive experience in building and operating organizations that develop and deliver innovative medicines to patients. Vincerx’s current pipeline is derived from an exclusive license agreement with Bayer and includes a clinical-stage and follow-on small molecule drug program and a preclinical stage bioconjugation platform, which includes next-generation antibody-drug conjugates and innovative small molecule drug conjugates. For more information, please visit www.vincerx.com.
Contact Information
Bruce Mackle
LifeSci Advisors, LLC
646-889-1200
bmackle@lifesciadvisors.com
Source: Vincerx Pharma, Inc.
