oncolytic-virus
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Howard L. Kaufman
Howard L. Kaufman, M.D., FACS, is a surgical oncologist and cancer immunotherapy pioneer who serves as President and CEO of Ankyra Therapeutics, a Boston clinical-stage biotech developing anchored immunotherapies. He led the pivotal Phase III trial of T-VEC, the first oncolytic virus ever approved by the FDA for cancer, and has published more than 500 scientific papers over a 20-plus year research career. He now leads Ankyra's work on anchored IL-12 therapy, tolododekin alfa (ANK-101), aiming to deliver powerful immune drugs directly into tumors without the toxicity of systemic dosing.
Tom Smart
Tom Smart is a biotech executive with a 25-year run of taking cancer companies from the lab bench to Wall Street and back again. He currently leads Actym Therapeutics, a cancer-immunotherapy company building bacteria-delivered gene therapies, after a career that ran through AnaptysBio, XOMA, Cell Genesys and Genetics Institute. He helped shepherd the PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor that became GSK's Jemperli, founded and sold an antifungal company, and is named in industry records as a CEO and board member at oncolytic-virus company Seneca Therapeutics. His specialty is the unglamorous middle: financings, partnerships, IPOs and acquisitions that decide whether a promising molecule ever reaches a patient.