Imago BioSciences, Inc.

Dr. Kariuki brings a wealth of experience in ADCs, across corporate strategy, finance and operations Advancement of Pheon's differentiated ADC pipeline, accelerating first program, PHN-010, into clinical development this year LONDON, Sept. 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Pheon Therapeutics (Pheon), a leading Antibody-Drug Conjugate (ADC) specialist developing next generation ADCs for a wide range of hard-to-treat cancers, today announces the appointment of accomplished biotech executive, Enoch Kariuki, Pharm.D., to its Board of Directors as an independent, non-executive director. Dr. Kariuki possesses extensive strategic, operational, and financial life sciences experience. He most recently served as the Chief Executive Officer of Lengo Therapeutics, which was acquired by Blueprint Medicines. Prior to Lengo Therapeutics, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of VelosBio, which was acquired by Merck, where he led all finance-related and investor relations functions. Prior to that, he was Senior Vice President, Corporate Development at Synthorx, which was acquired by Sanofi. In addition, Dr. Kariuki previously served as Board Director and Audit Chair of Imago Biosciences which was acquired by Merck, and ProfoundBio which was acquired by Genmab. Cyrus Mozayeni, MD, Chief Executive Officer of Pheon, said: "Dr. Kariuki joins Pheon at a pivotal stage of growth, as we advance into clinical development with PHN-010, our lead ADC program targeting patients with advanced solid tumors. His decision to join Pheon's board reflects his belief in our innovative pipeline and our team's track record in targeted oncology therapies and ADCs. Dr. Kariuki brings a wealth of executive leadership experience and knowledge in ADCs, which further strengthens our board as we transition into a clinical stage company and beyond." Dr. Kariuki's appointment follows the completion of a $120m Series B financing round earlier this year to advance Pheon's three first-in-class ADC assets through clinical proof of concept. The company's first program, PHN-010, will enter Phase 1 clinical trials in 2024, targeting an undisclosed novel target which is overexpressed in a wide range of solid tumors. Enoch Kariuki, Pharm.D., newly appointed Board Member of Pheon, commented: "There have been tremendous advances in the evolving field of ADCs and through my previous experience in advising and investing in life sciences companies, I have become familiar with Pheon's innovative work. I am excited to contribute to Pheon's development of next generation ADCs and to help advance these transformative therapies for the benefit of patients in need." Dr. Kariuki currently serves on the board of Zentalis Pharmaceuticals and is President of Endeavor BioMedicines. Earlier in his career, Dr. Kariuki was Vice President at H.I.G. Capital, a private equity firm managing over $60 billion in assets, where he invested in and served on the boards of multiple life sciences companies. His other previous positions include Senior Associate at Leerink Partners and Associate Director at UBS Investment Bank, where he advised healthcare companies on equity capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, and recapitalizations. Dr. Kariuki completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in R&D Strategy and Analytics at Bristol-Myers Squibb and was a Pharmacist at CVS Caremark. He holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and a PharmD from Texas Southern University. About Pheon Therapeutics Pheon Therapeutics is an Antibody Drug Conjugate (ADC) specialist developing a pipeline of ADCs, based on novel targets and novel linker payloads, to treat solid tumors. Pheon's lead program is a first-in-class ADC program against a novel target that is highly overexpressed in solid tumors across a broad range of hard-to-treat cancer types. Pheon is backed by expert, specialist healthcare investors TCGX, Atlas Venture, BVF Partners, Brandon Capital, Forbion, Lightspeed Venture Partners (Lightspeed), Perceptive Advisors, and Research Corporation Technologies. Pheon has a world class, proven leadership team that brings together the best of ADC engineering, clinical and managerial expertise, and track record. For further information, please visit SOURCE Pheon Therapeutics WANT YOUR COMPANY'S NEWS FEATURED ON PRNEWSWIRE.COM? 440k+ Newsrooms & Influencers 9k+ Digital Media Outlets 270k+ Journalists Opted In GET STARTED

FOSTER CITY, Calif., March 04, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Apollomics Inc. (“Apollomics” or the “Company”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing medicines to address difficult-to-treat cancers, today announced that Matthew Plunkett, Ph.D., has been appointed as Chief Financial Officer of Apollomics. “It’s our pleasure to welcome Matt to the Apollomics team. We expect his financial strategy and business development expertise from working with development and commercial stage public companies to be a critical asset as we execute our clinical, regulatory and commercialization plans,” said Guo-Liang Yu, Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Apollomics. “His appointment comes at a time of promising opportunity and growth for the company. We look forward to his contributions as we continue to execute on our vision of bringing vebreltinib and our other pipeline candidates through clinical trials and towards regulatory approval.” Dr. Plunkett added, “I am excited to join Apollomics at such an important point in the Company’s growth. The data for vebreltinib in various c-Met driven malignancies is compelling, and I look forward to working with the Apollomics leadership team to advance this drug candidate through development and help bring it to patients who could benefit from its differentiated activity and profile.” Dr. Plunkett brings to Apollomics over 25 years of diverse strategic and financial experience within the biopharmaceutical sector, most recently as Chief Financial Officer at Aeovian Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Aeovian, he was Chief Financial Officer at Imago Biosciences (acquired by Merck), where he led the efforts for the company’s $155 million Nasdaq initial public offering (IPO). He was previously Chief Financial Officer at Nkarta Therapeutics, where he led the efforts for its $290 million Nasdaq IPO. He has held positions including Chief Business Officer at CTI BioPharma (acquired by SOBI), a commercial stage hematology-oncology biopharmaceutical company, where he led a variety of financing and corporate development transactions. Earlier in his career, Dr. Plunkett held a variety of positions at CIBC World Markets and its U.S. successor Oppenheimer & Co., including Managing Director, Head of West Coast Biotechnology. Dr. Plunkett received his B.S. in chemistry from Harvey Mudd College and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. About Apollomics Inc.Apollomics Inc. is an innovative clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of oncology therapies with the potential to be combined with other treatment options to harness the immune system and target specific molecular pathways to inhibit cancer. Apollomics currently has a pipeline of nine drug candidates across multiple programs, six of which are currently in the clinical stage of development. Apollomics’ lead programs include vebreltinib (APL-101), a potent, selective c-Met inhibitor for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer and other advanced tumors with c-Met alterations, and uproleselan (APL-106), a specific E-Selectin antagonist that has the potential to be used adjunctively with standard chemotherapy to treat acute myeloid leukemia. For more information, please visit http://www.apollomics.com. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release includes statements that constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). All statements, other than statements of present or historical fact included in this press release, are forward-looking statements. When used in this press release, the words “potential,” “could,” “should,” “will,” “may,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “look,” “forward,” the negative of such terms and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words. Apollomics cautions you that its forward-looking statements are subject to unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the Company’s forward-looking statements, including: (i) the impact of any current or new government regulations in the United States and China affecting Apollomics’ operations and the continued listing of Apollomics’ securities; (ii) the inability to achieve successful clinical results or to obtain licensing of third-party intellectual property rights for future discovery and development of Apollomics’ oncology projects; (iii) the failure to commercialize product candidates and achieve market acceptance of such product candidates; (iv) the failure to protect intellectual property, and the risk of litigious claims, proceedings, litigation or other types of disputes related to Apollomics’ business, licenses or intellectual property; (v) breaches in data security; (vi) the risk that Apollomics may not be able to develop and maintain effective internal controls; (vii) unfavorable changes to the regulatory environment; and those risks and uncertainties discussed in the Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2022, filed by Apollomics Inc. with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on April 28, 2023, under the heading “Risk Factors” and the other documents filed, or to be filed, by the Company with the SEC. Additional information concerning these and other factors that may impact the Company can be found in the reports that Apollomics has filed and will file from time to time with the SEC. These SEC filings are available publicly on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made by the Company. Apollomics undertakes no obligation to update publicly any of its forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, new information or future events, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting forward-looking statements, except to the extent required by applicable law. CONTACTS Investor RelationsPeter VozzoICR WestwickePeter.Vozzo@westwicke.com 443-213-0505 Media RelationsSean LeousICR WestwickeSean.Leous@westwicke.com 646-866-4012

Merck's phase 3 lineup is continuing to grow, thanks in large part to dealmaking. After more than 20 phase 3 trials got underway in 2023, Merck is planning for even more this year, according to Dean Li, Ph.D., head of Merck Research Labs, on Thursday. Meanwhile, CEO Rob Davis says the company is hunting for more midsized deals.  Three new assets entered phase 3 trials in the fourth quarter, all three of which came from business development. MK-1022 is the most recent, coming over in Merck’s multibillion-dollar deal with Daiichi Sankyo announced in the fall. Candidates stemming from Merck’s licensing deal with Kelun and 2022 acquisition of Imago also entered phase 3 studies.  The advancement of programs stemming from deals only reinforces Davis’ continued commitment to business development, which he affirmed yet again on Thursday. In the last 12 months, Merck has acquired preclinical biotech Caraway Therapeutics, plus Prometheus Biosciences and Harpoon Therapeutics, each providing a different therapeutic area. All these moves are part of Merck’s larger diversification strategy to assuage investor concerns about Keytruda’s 2028 patent expiration.  “We do continue to believe we need more and we will continue to prioritize business development,” Davis said on the Thursday earnings call. Davis reiterated that Merck is interested in deals between $1 billion and $15 billion, with the $10 billion-plus range being the sweet spot. The likes of Prometheus and Acceleron fell in this range, and that's “still the size of deals we are very interested in,” he said. For comparison, Merck’s foray into T-cell engagers through last month’s Harpoon buy cost the biotech $680 million.  Recent acquisitions and partnerships contributed to Merck’s ballooning R&D spend in 2023, which exceeded a whopping $30 billion in GAAP expenses. But when you subtract charges stemming from deals with Daiichi, Prometheus and Imago, the total falls to $13.6 billion, $100 million more than the 2022 total, and about 23% of 2023 sales.  Still, Merck is trimming around the edges of its pipeline, including external assets. Gone from the company’s phase 1 pipeline is MK-0482, which was in development for non-small cell lung cancer as recently as the third quarter. Clinical trial records show that the company terminated a phase 1 study in patients with leukemia at the beginning of the year for “business reasons.” A Merck spokesperson said the company elected to discontinue the program as part of Merck's "routine pipeline prioritization."  Merck is also narrowing the use of an antibody-drug conjugate acquired from VelosBio to focus solely on hematological malignancies. Earnings documents from the third quarter show that MK-2140 was being tested in a handful of solid tumors as well, but they’re now no longer listed alongside the asset. The spokesperson said "we’re continuing to evaluate the best path forward."  Editor's note: This story was updated with comments from a Merck spokesperson and to correct the year Merck announced its acquisition of Imago BioSciences.