Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRIS), a biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative and effective drug candidates for the treatment of human cancers, today announced the appointment of Lori A. Kunkel, M.D. to its Board of Directors.
Dr. Kunkel currently serves on the Board of Directors at Loxo Oncology, where she was formerly Acting Chief Medical Officer. Prior to Loxo Oncology, Dr. Kunkel served as Chief Medical Officer at Pharmacyclics, Inc. leading integrated clinical development highlighted by the approval of IMBRUVICA®. She has also served as Chief Medical Officer at Proteolix Inc. (acquired by Onyx), Syndax, and ACT Biotech.
Prior to joining the biotechnology industry in 1995, Dr. Kunkel spent ten years in academic/clinical medicine and served as a faculty member in the Division of Hematology/Oncology’s Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at University of California, Los Angeles.
She trained in internal medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, hematology at USC and oncology at UCLA, earning board certifications in these specialties.
“We are delighted to welcome Lori to the Board of Curis and we will benefit tremendously from her depth of experience and instincts as we develop our drug candidates and place the company on a path for approval and commercialization of our products,” said CEO Ali Fattaey. “Lori is well known and respected in the biotechnology community and we have benefited from her role as an advisor to the company in the past.”
“I am pleased to join the Curis Board and look forward to working closely with the Board and management team as we collectively advance Curis as a leading oncology company,” said Dr. Kunkel.
IMBRUVICA® is a registered trademark of Pharmacyclics LLC
About Curis, Inc.
Curis is a biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative and effective drug candidates for the treatment of human cancers. The Company’s clinical drug candidates include CUDC-907, which is being investigated in a Phase 2 trial in patients with Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma, or DLBCL, and in a separate Phase 1 trial in patients with solid tumors. As part of a broad collaboration with Aurigene, Curis has an exclusive license to CA-170, an oral small molecule PD-L1/VISTA antagonist that is currently being investigated in a Phase 1 trial in patients with solid tumors or lymphoma. Curis also has an exclusive license to oral small molecule antagonists of the PD-1 and TIM-3 pathways, including PD-L1/TIM-3 antagonist CA-327, as well as to molecules designed to inhibit the IRAK4 kinase, including CA-4948. Curis is also party to a collaboration with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, under which Genentech and Roche are commercializing Erivedge® for the treatment of advanced basal cell carcinoma, and are further developing Erivedge in other diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and myelofibrosis. For more information, visit Curis’s website at www.curis.com.
