Press Release
Archamps, France, October 6, 2021
Step Pharma, a biotech company developing novel drugs for oncology and autoimmune diseases, announced today the appointment of Dr. Adrian Senderowicz to its Board of Directors. Dr. Senderowicz is a board-certified medical oncologist with 30 years of experience in drug development and commercialization.
“Adrian has phenomenal expertise in cancer drug development having led numerous oncology clinical trials and also brings regulatory agency experience,” said Andrew Parker, CEO of Step Pharma. “We’d like to welcome him to the Board and look forward to working closely with him as we move forward into clinical studies. Our lead program, STP938, will enter clinical studies for the treatment of heamatological malignancies in 2022.”
Dr. Senderowicz was previously Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Constellation Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for the development of a portfolio of compounds leveraging epigenetics. Before Constellation, Dr. Senderowicz was chief medical officer at Cerulean Pharma, where he helped secure fast-track designation for the company’s lead clinical program in two indications. Previously, Dr. Senderowicz held roles of increasing responsibility at Ignyta, Inc, Sanofi Oncology, Tokai Pharmaceuticals and AstraZeneca plc. He began his career as an investigator at the National Cancer Institute before joining the FDA’s CDER. Adrian conducted his Internal Medicine residency training at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and a Clinical Oncology Fellowship at the NCI. He holds an MD from the School of Medicine at the Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina). Dr. Senderowicz also sits on the board of Puma Biotechnology.
“Step Pharma’s CTPS1 (cytidine triphosphate synthase 1) platform is extremely promising for cancer indications. I’m looking forward to help guide the company as it moves its first program, STP938, into clinical development for the treatment of haematological malignancies,”
Dr. Senderowicz said.
Targeting CTPS1
Cytidine nucleotide triphosphate (CTP) is a precursor required for DNA synthesis and cell division. Patients deficient in the enzyme CTPS1 have an altered immune cell proliferation response to immune challenge but no other deleterious effects. This same pathway supports the uncontrolled growth of cancerous T and B cells, thus inhibiting CTPS1 represents a novel precision oncology approach to specifically block proliferation and induce killing of cancerous cells in lymphoma and leukaemia.
About Step Pharma
Step Pharma is focused on the development of a novel class of oral nucleotide synthesis inhibitors targeting CTPS1 for the improved treatment of a range of cancer types. The company has identified several inhibitors of CTPS1, with the most advanced, STP938, being prepared for clinical studies in haematological malignancies.
Step Pharma was founded in June 2014 by Kurma Partners, the Imagine Institute, and Sygnature Discovery based on the scientific discoveries of Dr Sylvain Latour and Prof. Alain Fischer (UMR1163 Inserm unit). Step Pharma is based in Saint-Genis-Pouilly, France, and is supported by a strong investor base led by Kurma Partners and including Bpifrance (Fonds Biothérapies Innovantes et Maladies Rares and InnoBio2 Fund), Pontifax, Hadean Ventures, Sunstone Life Science Ventures, Inserm Transfert Initiative, Idinvest, Sygnature Discovery and the Imagine Institute.
For more information please contact
Step Pharma
Andrew Parker, Chief Executive Officer
contact@step-ph.com
