Ambit Biosciences Adds World-Renowned Experts in Oncology and Kinase Drug Development to Scientific Advisory Board
Distinguished Board Members to Assist Company's Drug Discovery and Development Efforts
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 10, 2004 - Ambit Biosciences announced today the addition of Tony Hunter, Ph.D., and Webster Cavenee, Ph.D., to its Scientific Advisory Board.
The new members of the board will advise Ambit as it continues to expand its Kinase Profiling Platform, an industry-leading high-throughput panel of quantitative human kinase assays, and advance its proprietary compounds into the clinic. Ambit is developing several small molecule kinase inhibitors to address significant therapeutic needs in oncology, and has an advanced pre-clinical stroke/neuroprotection program based on a proprietary protein target.
Tony Hunter, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and an Adjunct Professor in the Division of Biology at the University of California at San Diego, and also holds an American Cancer Society Professorship. Dr. Hunter is one of the foremost leaders in the field of cell growth control, growth factor receptors, and signal transduction pathways. He is a pioneer in the study of protein-tyrosine kinases and their role in cell growth, oncogenesis, and the cell cycle.
Dr. Hunter was recently awarded the prestigious Landon-AACR Prize for Cancer Research, the largest prize offered to cancer researchers from a professional society of their peers. Dr. Hunter was a founder of Signal Pharmaceuticals, is a Foreign Associate of the National Academy, and serves on a number of scientific review and advisory committees.
About the Roche Venture Fund
The Roche Venture Fund invests in early stage biotech and diagnostics companies to support innovative technologies and medicines. Based in Basel, Switzerland, the Roche Venture Fund invests globally with a portfolio of over 25 companies in 10 countries.
Webster Cavenee, Ph.D., is Director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and Professor of Medicine at the University of California at San Diego. Dr. Cavenee's research is directed at defining the genetic lesions in human cancer, determining their physiological significance, and using such information for therapeutic approaches. Dr. Cavenee is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Past-President of the American Association for Cancer Research, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. He is on the editorial boards of several journals and has served on the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
"Ambit's Scientific Advisory Board will contribute significantly in guiding our drug discovery and development efforts," said Dr. David Lockhart, Ambit's Chief Scientific Officer. "We are pleased and honored that Drs. Cavenee and Hunter, world-renowned experts in the fields of oncology and kinases, have joined our team of advisors as we drive new therapeutics into clinical development. We believe their involvement and support will be extremely valuable and strongly endorse our drug discovery and development programs. We look forward to benefiting from their insight and considerable expertise."
"In a short time, Ambit's chemistry-directed approach to drug discovery has produced numerous high-quality lead candidates for multiple targets," explained Dr. Cavenee. "Ambit can rapidly assess compound interactions for over 120 kinase targets -- simultaneously identifying compounds worth pursuing and those without sufficient specificity. With the commercial success of Gleevec, there is the expectation that other successful small-molecule kinase inhibitors, particularly for oncology, will have blockbuster potential. Ambit's approach should accelerate their path to the clinic and increase the likelihood of clinical success."
About Ambit
Ambit Biosciences commenced laboratory operations in the fall of 2000 to develop and commercialize a new approach to identify novel small molecule-protein interactions. Today, Ambit's proprietary platform technology provides an unprecedented ability to rapidly identify, characterize, and quantify small molecule-protein interactions. Ambit has successfully used the platform to build a promising pipeline of pre-clinical small molecule drug leads expected to have a high probability of clinical and commercial success. Ambit is currently pursuing programs in oncology and stroke/neuroprotection, and anticipates commencing clinical trials in 2005.