Gritstone Oncology Announces the Addition of Jean-Charles Soria, M.D., Ph.D., to its Scientific Advisory Board

EMERYVILLE, Calif., June 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gritstone Oncology, Inc. (Nasdaq: GRTS), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing the next generation of cancer immunotherapies to fight multiple cancer types, today announced that Jean-Charles Soria, M.D., Ph.D., chief executive officer of Gustave Roussy Cancer Center, has joined the company’s scientific advisory board (SAB).

“We are delighted that our co-founder Jean-Charles, a world-class medical oncologist and scientist, has rejoined our SAB following his tenure at AstraZeneca,” said Andrew Allen, M.D., Ph.D., co-founder, president and chief executive officer of Gritstone Oncology. “Jean-Charles’ deep oncology expertise and fresh experience in strategic portfolio analysis and expansion will be invaluable as we maximize the potential of our development programs and our foundational proprietary technologies, such as our artificial intelligence platform Gritstone EDGE™.”

Dr. Soria is the chief executive officer of Gustave Roussy Cancer Center, the premier European comprehensive cancer center based in Villejuif, France, a position to which he was appointed in January 2020. Previously, he was the senior vice president of early oncology research and development for AstraZeneca where he oversaw strategic planning and clinical development for product candidates in immuno-oncology, including cell therapy and antibody drug conjugates. Since 2006, Jean-Charles has been a tenured professor of medicine and medical oncology at the Université Paris Sud, and created and led the Drug Development Department (DITEP) at the Gustave Roussy Cancer Center where he conducted or supervised more than 50 Phase 1 studies in targeted therapies and immunotherapies against cancer.

Dr. Soria trained as a medical oncologist at the Université René Descartes in Paris, France, where he received his M.D. and obtained the prestigious Silver Medal from Paris Residency Hospitals in 1997. He received his Ph.D. in 2001 from Université Paris Sud, also in Paris, following innovative translational research in targeted therapies, and conducted a two-year post-doctoral fellowship in the department of thoracic head and neck medical oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston, USA, where he held an Adjunct Professorship from 2012 to 2017. Dr. Soria has contributed to over 640 peer-reviewed publications, including publications as first or last author in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, and the Journal of Clinical Oncology. From 2014 to 2017, he was editor in chief of the Annals of Oncology.

Dr. Soria added, “The capacity of the immune system to identify and kill tumor cells, leading to durable clinical benefit, is abundantly clear to us all. Understanding and harnessing the mechanisms underlying these phenomena is a key contemporary challenge in oncology therapeutics. As they come to the end of Phase 1 clinical trials for their lead programs, Gritstone’s opportunity to apply their scientific insights to the treatment of patients with solid tumor cancers, particularly in the early stage context, is unique. I am thrilled to join the SAB during this exciting time.”

About Gritstone Oncology

Gritstone Oncology (Nasdaq: GRTS), a clinical-stage biotechnology company, is developing the next generation of cancer immunotherapies to fight multiple cancer types. Gritstone develops its products by leveraging two key pillars—first, a proprietary machine learning-based platform, Gritstone EDGE™, which is designed to predict, from a routine tumor biopsy, the tumor-specific neoantigens (TSNA) that are presented on a patient’s tumor cells; and second, the ability to develop and manufacture potent immunotherapies utilizing patients’ TSNA to potentially drive the patient’s immune system to specifically attack and destroy tumors. The company’s “off the shelf” shared neoantigen-based immunotherapy, SLATE, and its individualized neoantigen-based immunotherapy, GRANITE, are being evaluated in Phase 1 clinical studies. Novel tumor-specific antigens can also provide targets for bispecific antibody (BiSAb) therapeutics for solid tumors, and Gritstone’s BiSAb program is currently in lead optimization. For more information, please visit gritstoneoncology.com.

Gritstone Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements related to the potential of Gritstone’s therapeutic programs. Such forward-looking statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause Gritstone’s research and clinical development programs, future results, performance or achievements to differ significantly from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, the uncertainties inherent in the drug development process, including Gritstone’s programs’ early stage of development, the process of designing and conducting preclinical and clinical trials, the regulatory approval processes, the timing of regulatory filings, the challenges associated with manufacturing drug products, Gritstone’s ability to successfully establish, protect and defend its intellectual property and other matters that could affect the sufficiency of existing cash to fund operations. Gritstone undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. For a further description of the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those expressed in these forward-looking statements, as well as risks relating to the business of the company in general, see Gritstone’s most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed on May 7, 2020 and any current and periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Wheelhouse Life Science Advisors

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