HOOKIPA Pharma Appoints Mark Winderlich as Chief Development Officer to Lead Clinical Research and Development Organization

NEW YORK and VIENNA, Austria, Jan. 16, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HOOKIPA Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: HOOK, ‘HOOKIPA’), a company developing a new class of immunotherapeutics based on its proprietary arenavirus platform, today announced the appointment of Mark Winderlich, PhD, as Chief Development Officer, effective April 1, 2024 (‘effective date’). Dr. Winderlich has rich experience leading multiple candidates through the drug development process to product approval in the United States and in Europe.

“We are pleased to bring our search for a capable clinical development leader to such a swift, successful resolution and welcome Mark to the team,” said Joern Aldag, Chief Executive Officer at HOOKIPA. “Mark is a tremendous talent with rich experience across the drug development lifecycle. We have significant opportunity with our HB-200 program to improve on the standard of care for people with advanced HPV16+ head and neck cancer, and we look to progress the program to a randomized study and, ultimately, registration. Our need for an experienced and focused, drug-development leader is clear, and I am certain that Mark is the right leader to execute our strategic initiatives.”

Dr. Winderlich joins HOOKIPA from Evotec SE, where he has served as Executive Vice President, Head of Global Scientific Operations. In his role, he led Evotec’s partnership with Bristol Myers Squibb in oncology. Prior to Evotec, Dr. Winderlich spent more than 12 years in drug development at MorphoSys AG across various roles of increasing responsibility. Key roles included: leading the company’s U.S.-based development activities for Pelabresib, an ongoing Phase III pivotal trial in first-line myelofibrosis; and leading various development activities of multiple drug candidates including MONJUVI^® (tafasitamab-cxix)—an approved therapy for the treatment of recurrent/refractory diffuse large B cell lymphoma in the U.S. and Europe. Dr. Winderlich received his PhD in Biomedicine from Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Muenster and MSc in Medical Biometry from University Heidelberg.

“I am excited to join the HOOKIPA team and help advance novel arenaviral therapies, which have demonstrated best-in-class potential across multiple disease areas,” said Dr. Winderlich. “Cancer and infectious diseases continue to impact people every day, and I am honored to play a role in helping to potentially deliver new treatments for these patients.”

Dr. Malte Peters will continue to serve as ad interim Senior Clinical Advisor until the effective date. At such time, Dr. Peters will remain on the Company’s board of directors as an independent director.

About HOOKIPA

HOOKIPA Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: HOOK) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel immunotherapies, based on its proprietary arenavirus platform, which are designed to mobilize and amplify targeted T cells and thereby fight or prevent serious disease. HOOKIPA’s replicating and non-replicating technologies are engineered to induce robust and durable antigen-specific CD8+ T cell responses and pathogen-neutralizing antibodies. HOOKIPA’s pipeline includes its wholly owned investigational arenaviral immunotherapies targeting Human Papillomavirus 16-positive cancers, prostate cancers, and other undisclosed programs. HOOKIPA is collaborating with Roche on an arenaviral immunotherapeutic for KRAS-mutated cancers. In addition, HOOKIPA aims to develop functional cures of HBV and HIV in collaboration with Gilead.

Find out more about HOOKIPA online at 

Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements set forth in this press release constitute “forward-looking” statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Forward-looking statements can be identified by terms such as “believes,” “expects,” “plans,” “potential,” “would” or similar expressions and the negative of those terms. Such forward-looking statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause HOOKIPA’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 HOOKIPA’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, HOOKIPA’s ability to successfully establish, protect and defend its intellectual property, risks relating to business interruptions resulting from public health crises, the impact of public health crises on the enrollment of patients and timing of clinical results, and other matters that could affect the sufficiency of existing cash to fund operations. HOOKIPA 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 HOOKIPA’s quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2023, which is available on the SEC’s website at  and HOOKIPA’s website at .

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