PALO ALTO, Calif.– Immune-Onc Therapeutics, Inc. (“Immune-Onc”), a private, clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy company developing novel biotherapeutics targeting myeloid checkpoints, today announced the appointment of Christopher Whitmore as chief financial officer. In addition, the company provided a clinical progress update on IO-108, its first-in-class antagonist antibody targeting the Leukocyte Immunoglobulin-Like Receptor subfamily B2 (LILRB2, also known as ILT4) of myeloid checkpoints.
“Chris brings a wealth of industry experience to Immune-Onc at an exciting stage in the company’s evolution,” said Charlene Liao, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Immune-Onc. “His impressive track record of success and diverse experience across disciplines, including finance and operations, will be impactful to Immune-Onc’s continued success.”
“It’s an incredibly exciting time to join Immune-Onc, as the company continues to advance its promising pipeline of novel myeloid checkpoint inhibitors. I look forward to working with this talented and passionate management team to accelerate the development of Immune-Onc’s portfolio of products that may improve outcomes for cancer patients who currently have limited treatment options,” said Mr. Whitmore.
Mr. Whitmore is a highly accomplished financial executive who has more than 20 years of experience in strategic finance, accounting, operations, investor relations and organizational development. He joins Immune-Onc from Notable Labs, where he served as chief financial officer since 2021. Prior to that, he served as vice president of finance and administration for Harpoon Therapeutics. During his tenure there, he supported the company’s crossover financing, initial public offering, licensing and collaboration, follow-on financings and public company operations. Mr. Whitmore previously held management positions at Immune Design (now part of Merck & Co.), AcelRx Pharmaceuticals and Sangamo Therapeutics. He started his career at KPMG LLP, where he served in the audit practice. He received his B.A. in business economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and holds an active CPA license.
Immune-Onc also announced successful completion of dose escalation in the first-in-human clinical trial (NCT05054348) of IO-108, a novel antagonist antibody targeting the myeloid checkpoint Leukocyte Immunoglobulin-Like Receptor B2 (LILRB2, also known as ILT4), for the treatment of solid tumors.
In the study, adult patients with advanced or refractory solid tumors were treated with IO-108 at 60, 180, 600 or 1,800 mg in monotherapy and at 180, 600 or 1,800 mg in combination with 200 mg of pembrolizumab, an anti-PD-1 antibody, administered intravenously every three weeks. IO-108 has been well-tolerated at up to 1,800 mg, either as a monotherapy or in combination with pembrolizumab, without dose-limiting toxicity so far.
Additionally, early signals of clinical activity were observed in multiple tumor types with demonstrated monotherapy efficacy. This supports the clinical development plan to advance IO-108 into select cancers for dose expansion as monotherapy and in combination with anti-PD-(L)1 and/or standard of care therapies. A biomarker strategy will include evaluation of a specific, sensitive and proprietary LILRB2 antibody for immunohistochemistry to enable tumor selection with an increased probability of success.
“We are very pleased with the rapid enrollment and early completion of dose escalation of IO-108 in solid tumor patients. Emerging data from our first-in-human study demonstrate that IO-108 has an excellent safety and tolerability profile. We are also encouraged by signals of clinical activity in multiple tumor types,” said Paul Woodard, M.D., chief medical officer of Immune-Onc. “We look forward to advancing IO-108 into multiple expansion cohorts in specific tumor types as monotherapy and in combination with T cell checkpoint inhibitors.”
