SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Turning Point Therapeutics, Inc. (TP Therapeutics), a clinical-stage precision oncology company developing novel drugs that address treatment resistance, today announced the appointment of Jacob Chacko, M.D., chief executive officer of ORIC Pharmaceuticals, to the company’s board of directors.
"Jacob is a strong addition to our board, bringing excellent financial, operational and strategic expertise that will be essential as we grow the company,” said Athena Countouriotis, M.D., chief executive officer. “I have known Jacob for several years and we are fortunate to have him join our distinguished board at this critical time.”
Prior to becoming CEO of ORIC Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Chacko was chief financial officer of Ignyta, a NASDAQ-listed precision oncology company acquired by Roche for $1.7 billion. Prior to Ignyta, Dr. Chacko was an investor at TPG Capital. His board experience includes service at Bonti, RentPath, EnvisionRx, and Packard Children’s Health Alliance at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. Dr. Chacko received his M.D. from UCLA and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He also received a M.Sc. from Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar.
“I am excited to join the Turning Point Therapeutics board at such a pivotal time, following an important financing round and as the company now prepares to launch the potential registration study for its lead asset,” said Dr. Chacko. “The company’s founders, board and management team have built an impressive pipeline of oncology assets.”
Turning Point Therapeutics closed an $80 million mezzanine financing in October and reported encouraging preliminary data from its ongoing Phase 1/2 TRIDENT-1 study in patients with ROS1 fusion-positive non-small-cell lung cancer and NTRK-driven solid tumors in June and September.
About Turning Point Therapeutics Inc.
Turning Point Therapeutics is a clinical-stage precision oncology company forging a new path for targeted cancer care. Founded in October 2013 by Dr. J. Jean Cui, the lead inventor of Pfizer’s oncology drugs crizotinib and lorlatinib, the company is developing a pipeline of novel drugs that aim to tackle treatment resistance and give new hope to patients who have stopped responding to available targeted therapies. Mounting clinical data for the company’s lead program, repotrectinib, a next-generation kinase inhibitor targeting genetic drivers of non-small cell lung cancer and advanced solid tumors, has shown ongoing antitumor activity and durable responses among treatment-naïve and pre-treated patients. With additional programs underway to address similarly intractable oncogenic drivers, Turning Point Therapeutics is marking a turning point in the way solid-tumor cancers are treated. For more information, visit www.tptherapeutics.com.
About Repotrectinib (TPX-0005)
Repotrectinib (TPX-0005) is a potent and orally bioavailable investigational small-molecule inhibitor of ALK, ROS1 and TRK family kinases. The clinical benefits of targeting ALK, ROS1 or TRK fusion kinases have been demonstrated with multiple kinase inhibitors already approved for the treatment of ALK+ non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), in addition to crizotinib for ROS1+ NSCLC, and larotrectinib and entrectinib in clinical studies for TRK+ cancers. The successes of these therapies are overshadowed by the development of acquired resistance. The acquired solvent front mutations including ALK G1202R, ROS1 G2032R, TRKA G595R and TRKC G623R render a common clinical resistance to the current ALK, ROS1, and TRK inhibitors.
Repotrectinib has demonstrated potency against wildtype and mutated ALK, ROS1 and TRK family kinases, especially the clinically significant solvent front mutations, gatekeeper mutations, and emerging compound mutations after multiple lines of treatment. Repotrectinib may provide a new opportunity to inhibit the abnormal signaling of ALK, ROS1, or TRK family kinases in solid malignancies, and overcome multiple resistance mechanisms seen in refractory patients. Repotrectinib is currently being evaluated in a Phase 1/2, open-label, multi-center, first-in-human study of the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and anti-tumor activity in patients with advanced solid tumors harboring ALK, ROS1, or NTRK1-3 rearrangements (TRIDENT-1 study, www.clinicaltrials.gov number NCT03093116). Interested patients and physicians can contact the TP Therapeutics Oncology Clinical Trial Hotline at 1-858-276-0005 or email clinical@tptherapeutics.com.
