Engitix Announces Appointment of Christopher Stevenson, Ph.D., as Chief Scientific Officer

2023-09-05

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LONDON, Sept. 05, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Engitix Ltd (‘Engitix’), a biotechnology company with a portfolio of drug discovery programmes in fibrosis and solid tumours using its proprietary patient-centric human extracellular matrix (ECM) platform, today announces the appointment of Christopher (Chris) Stevenson, Ph.D., as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO).

In this new role, Chris will be responsible for leading the company’s scientific and translational strategy, to advance a portfolio of novel therapies towards IND-enabling studies and eventually trials in patients with fibrotic diseases and solid tumours. He will also be responsible for leading Engitix’s R&D Pharma partnerships centered on its novel platform technologies.

Chris brings to Engitix a strong track record of driving innovation and developing talented teams to propel science into novel therapeutic and diagnostic solutions for patients. He joins from Johnson & Johnson, where he most recently served as Vice President, Global Head of Pharmaceutical Sciences for Interventional Oncology. In this role he was responsible for building a team to support discovery through early development programs and delivering a portfolio of clinical-stage assets, which included multiple cancer immunotherapies and the licensing of NBTXR3 from Nanobiotix.

Prior to this role, Chris headed discovery and translational biology units at Respivert, Novartis and Roche. Over his career, Chris has led the discovery or contributed to the development of over 10 drug candidates aiming to treat fibrosis, inflammation or cancers, as well as authoring over 60 peer reviewed papers and patents.

He received his Doctorate and Bachelor of Science degrees from the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA.

Dr Giuseppe Mazza, co-founder and CEO of Engitix, said, “I am delighted to welcome Chris to Engitix at this pivotal time in the company’s development. After multiple years of platform validation with Pharma partnerships and internal activities, we have unlocked key drivers of disease progression using our proprietary human ECM platform. We are now progressing towards the development of potential breakthrough therapies for people suffering from fibrosis and solid tumours.

“Chris’s experience and knowledge in delivering clinical therapies and diagnostic solutions in these devastating diseases will serve as a catalyst to transform Engitix from a platform company to a multi-asset preclinical stage biopharma company. We will also continue to expand our ECM platform discovery capabilities and patient-centric omics proprietary dataset.”

Dr Christopher Stevenson, CSO of Engitix, said, “Engitix is at a very exciting stage, and I look forward to contributing to the company’s strategic development as it continues to evolve from a technology platform to a multi-asset, biopharma company. I am impressed by Engitix’s ECM platform that can be used to discover and validate novel targets and biomarkers to support the development of innovative therapies for patients with fibrotic diseases and solid tumours.”

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Notes to Editors:

About Engitix Ltd

Engitix is progressing a portfolio of internal and partnered drug discovery programmes in fibrosis and solid tumours using its pioneering patient-centric human extracellular matrix (ECM) drug discovery platform. As the platform is unlocking key drivers of disease progression and new validated targets and biomarkers, Engitix is transitioning from a platform technology company to a multi-asset preclinical stage biopharma company with potential breakthrough therapies.

Engitix has a strategic drug discovery partnership with Dompé farmaceutici, where Engitix’s internal drug development programmes are being accelerated by leveraging Dompé’s AI-enabled high performance computing platform, Exscalate, and drug discovery and development collaborations with Takeda in advanced fibrotic liver diseases, including non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and in fibrostenotic Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

Established to commercialise cutting-edge research from the Institute for Liver and Digestive Health, Division of Medicine, University College London (UCL), Engitix is headquartered in Westworks, White City Place, London, UK. The company has to date raised more than $30m through issuing equity to investors including Netherton Investments (a fund investing on behalf of Mike Platt) and Dompé farmaceutici S.P.A. and, subject to the outcome of certain drug discovery activities being performed by Dompe, may issue further shares with a value of up to $28m.

For more information, please visit www.engitix.com

For more information:

At the Company

Giuseppe Mazza, CEO

E: giuseppe.mazza@engitix.com

Media enquiries (for Engitix)

Sue Charles, Charles Consultants

T: +44 7986 726585

E: sue@charles-consultants.com