Plus Therapeutics Strengthens Clinical Program with the Appointment of Pius Maliakal as Vice President of Clinical Operations
AUSTIN, Texas, July 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (Nasdaq: ) (the “Company”), a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing targeted radiotherapeutics with advanced platform technologies for central nervous system cancers, today announced the appointment of Pius Maliakal, M. Pharm., Ph.D., as Vice President of Clinical Operations. Dr. Maliakal will be responsible for the strategy and planning of key clinical operational initiatives, focusing on advancing the Company’s lead clinical trials, ReSPECT-GBM and ReSPECT-LM, and further developing the broader pipeline.
Dr. Maliakal is an accomplished R&D professional who brings over 20 years of global and domestic experience to Plus Therapeutics. Prior to joining the Company, he served as Director of Clinical Science at PTC Therapeutics, leading the clinical development, clinical trial operations, strategies, and data interpretations of all oncology assets across the enterprise. Previously, as Director of Clinical Development at Eagle Therapeutics, he led and facilitated the core design and conduct of Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials within breast cancer, lung cancer and other solid tumors. During his prior tenure at Immunomedics, he was instrumental in the Phase 1 through Phase 3 clinical trials of Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan) leading to accelerated FDA approval for treatment of triple-negative breast cancer as well as other investigational agents, including unesbulin and emvododstat. Dr. Maliakal earned his M. Pharm. from Nagpur University, India and his Ph.D. from the University of Otago, New Zealand.
“Pius has a unique blend of experience in oncologic clinical development and trial operations that will make an immediate positive impact to our team,” said Marc Hedrick, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer. “As we move our co-lead programs in glioblastoma and leptomeningeal metastases to the next clinical stages, our clinical operational team also needs to expand and advance. We are confident in Pius’ track record of clinical leadership, successful regulatory submissions, early- to late-stage trial preparation and execution with novel investigational therapeutics.”
Dr. Maliakal added, “I’m excited to be joining the team at such an important time, and I’m eager to contribute my expertise to support ongoing pipeline development and generate a long-term clinical strategy within the Company. Based on the Company’s promising data readouts in both glioblastoma and leptomeningeal metastases, PLUS has tremendous potential to help patients with central nervous system cancers.”
About Plus Therapeutics
Plus Therapeutics, Inc. is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing targeted radiotherapeutics for difficult-to-treat cancers of the central nervous system with the potential to enhance clinical outcomes for patients. Combining image-guided local beta radiation and targeted drug delivery approaches, the Company is advancing a pipeline of product candidates with lead programs in recurrent glioblastoma (GBM) and leptomeningeal metastases (LM). The Company has built a robust supply chain through strategic partnerships that enable the development, manufacturing and future potential commercialization of its products. Plus Therapeutics is led by an experienced and dedicated leadership team and has operations in key cancer clinical development hubs including Austin and San Antonio, Texas. For more information, visit .
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This press release contains statements that may be deemed “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of U.S. securities laws. All statements in this press release other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements may be identified by future verbs, as well as terms such as “designed to,” “will,” “can,” “potential,” “focus,” “preparing,” “next steps,” “possibly,” and similar expressions or the negatives thereof. Such statements are based upon certain assumptions and assessments made by management in light of their experience and their perception of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors they believe to be appropriate. These statements include, without limitation, statements regarding the following: the potential promise of 186Re including the ability of 186Re to safely and effectively deliver radiation directly to the tumor at high doses; expectations as to the Company’s future performance including the next steps in developing the Company’s current assets; the Company’s clinical trials including statements regarding the timing and characteristics of the ReSPECT-GBM and ReSPECT-LM clinical trials; possible negative effects of 186Re; the continued evaluation of 186Re including through evaluations in additional patient cohorts; and the intended functions of the Company’s platform and expected benefits from such functions.
The forward-looking statements included in this press release are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the Company’s actual results may differ, including materially, from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, the following: the early stage of the Company’s product candidates and therapies, the results of the Company’s research and development activities, including uncertainties relating to the clinical trials of its product candidates and therapies; the Company’s liquidity and capital resources and its ability to raise additional cash, the outcome of the Company’s partnering/licensing efforts, risks associated with laws or regulatory requirements applicable to it, market conditions, product performance, litigation or potential litigation, and competition within the cancer diagnostics and therapeutics field, among others; and additional risks described under the heading “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including in the Company’s annual and quarterly reports. There may be events in the future that the Company is unable to predict, or over which it has no control, and its business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may change in the future. The Company assumes no responsibility to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events, trends or circumstances after the date they are made unless the Company has an obligation under U.S. federal securities laws to do so.
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