Oncternal Therapeutics Announces its Prostate Cancer Scientific Advisory Board

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Oncternal Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ONCT), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel oncology therapies, today announced the establishment of its Prostate Cancer Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). The Prostate Cancer SAB is comprised of distinguished academic and industry leaders in the prostate cancer field, which will advise Oncternal as it develops its novel dual-acting androgen receptor inhibitor (DAARI), ONCT-534.

“We are truly honored to introduce our prostate cancer scientific advisory board, comprised of world-renown leaders with deep expertise in all key areas of research and clinical development to support the development of ONCT-534, our dual-acting androgen receptor inhibitor,” said James Breitmeyer, M.D., Ph.D., Oncternal’s President and CEO. “We look forward to working together with our SAB to advance to market our novel therapeutic alternative for patients with advanced prostate cancer who have relapsed or are refractory to currently approved androgen receptor signaling inhibitors, one of the most critical unmet needs in advanced prostate cancer.”

The members of the Oncternal Prostate Cancer SAB include:

Johann de Bono, M.D., Ph.D. is Regius Professor of Cancer Research, and Professor in Experimental Cancer Medicine at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and Director of the joint Drug Development Unit at The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London. Dr. de Bono is a world leader in prostate cancer research, leading advancements in the treatment of prostate cancer through trials of abiraterone, cabazitaxel, and enzalutamide. He has also led the clinical development of multiple PARP inhibitors, including talazoparib, niraparib and olaparib. He also led on the identification of germline and somatic DNA repair defects in lethal prostate cancer. Dr. de Bono earned his M.D. and Ph.D. from Glasgow University, and he is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, a Member of the Malta Order of Merit and received the prestigious ESMO Award in 2012.

Evan Yu, M.D. is Professor and Section Head of Medical Oncology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and the University of Washington in Seattle. Dr. Yu treats prostate, bladder, and testicular cancer patients. He is also the Medical Director of Clinical Research Support for the Fred Hutch/University of Washington/Seattle Children’s Cancer Consortium. As a clinician-scientist, he provides a personalized-medicine approach to test novel therapies and discover unique prostate cancer biomarkers. Dr. Yu earned his M.D. at the University of Washington School of Medicine, did his Internal Medicine residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and was a fellow in Hematology and Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Scott Dehm, Ph.D. is Professor and Apogee Enterprises Chair in Cancer Research, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the University Minnesota, Minneapolis. Dr. Dehm’s research laboratory focuses on the role of the androgen receptor (AR) and alterations in AR signaling in prostate cancer development and progression, studying the changes that occur in the AR in response to drug therapies to understand the mechanisms underlying the progression to therapy-resistant disease. His work has revealed new ways in which cancer cells can re-activate the androgen/AR pathway. Dr. Dehm completed a BS and Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of Saskatchewan was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Mayo Clinic.

Gunnar Kaufmann, Ph.D. is Senior Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Open Innovation at Kyowa Kirin, Inc., San Diego. Dr. Kaufmann is the former Chief Scientific Officer of Oncternal Therapeutics, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at The Scripps Research Institute in the Departments of Chemistry and Immunology and Microbial Science. Dr. Kaufmann played a key role in the preclinical development of ONCT-534. Dr. Kaufmann is an active member of the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Association of Immunologists, the Society for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, and the American Society for Clinical Oncology. He received his Ph.D. in Biology from The Scripps Research Institute, his Master of Science in Human Biology from the University of Greifswald, Germany, and his Bachelor of Science in Human Biology from The Philipps University, Germany.

Howard Soule, Ph.D. – pro-bono advisor – is Executive Vice President & Chief Science Officer at the Prostate Cancer Foundation, Santa Monica. Dr. Howard Soule leads the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) in funding and accelerating prostate cancer research globally. Dr. Soule is a senior fellow of the Milken Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank and is also a member of the Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program Integration Panel. He has also served as program director of research and development at Sanofi Diagnostic Pasteur, vice president of research and development at Corvas International, Inc., and vice president and managing director of CaP CURE: Association for the Cure of Cancer of the Prostate. Dr. Soule received a Ph.D. from Baylor College of Medicine in Virology and Epidemiology and was a Post Doctoral Fellow in Immunology and Vascular Biology at the Scripps Research Institute.

About Oncternal Therapeutics
Oncternal Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel oncology therapies for the treatment of patients with cancers that have critical unmet medical need. Oncternal pursues drug development targeting promising, yet untapped biological pathways implicated in cancer generation or progression, focusing on hematological malignancies and prostate cancer. ONCT-808 is an investigational autologous chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cell therapy that targets Receptor tyrosine kinase-like Orphan Receptor 1 (ROR1) using the binding domain from zilovertamab. Oncternal has initiated Study ONCT-808-101 (NCT05588440) for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory aggressive B-cell lymphoma, including patients who have failed previous CD19 CAR T treatment. ONCT-808 has demonstrated activity in preclinical models against multiple hematological malignancies and solid tumors and has been shown to be specific for cancer cells expressing ROR1. Oncternal has developed a robust and reproducible manufacturing process that has the potential to reduce the time patients must wait for their individual CAR T product to be produced, compared with approved CAR T products. ONCT-534 is a dual-action androgen receptor inhibitor (DAARI) with preclinical activity in prostate cancer models against both unmutated androgen receptor (AR), and against multiple forms of AR aberrations. It is a potential treatment for patients with relapsed or refractory metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) and unmet medical need because of resistance to androgen receptor inhibitors, including those with AR amplification, mutations in the AR ligand binding domain (LBD), or splice variants with loss of the AR LBD. ONCT-534 has an active U.S. IND, and a Phase 1/2 clinical trial is being opened. Zilovertamab is an investigational monoclonal antibody designed to inhibit the function of ROR1. Zilovertamab showed evidence of antitumor activity and was well tolerated in Phase 1/2 Study CIRM-0001 (NCT03088878) in combination with ibrutinib for the treatment of patients with mantle cell lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and marginal zone lymphoma. Zilovertamab is being evaluated in two investigator-initiated studies: a Phase 2 clinical trial of zilovertamab in combination with venetoclax, a Bcl-2 inhibitor, in patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) CLL (NCT04501939), and a Phase 1b study of zilovertamab in combination with docetaxel in patients with mCRPC (NCT05156905). More information on our company and programs is available at https://oncternal.com/.

Contact Information:

Investors
Richard Vincent
Chief Financial Officer
858-434-1113
rvincent@oncternal.com

Media
Corey Davis, Ph.D.
LifeSci Advisors
212-915-2577
cdavis@lifesciadvisors.com