Targovax ASA appoints Dr Victor Levitsky as Chief Scientific Officer
Oslo, Norway, 30 April 2020 - Targovax ASA (OSE: TRVX) announces the appointment of Dr Victor Levitsky, MD, PhD as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO). He will play a leading role in driving research strategy and pipeline expansions, particularly the scientific and mechanistic aspects of early clinical work. Dr Levitsky will serve as a member of Targovax’s management team.
Dr Levitsky is a seasoned internationally recognized expert in immunology, oncology, T-cell immunotherapy and immuno-oncology with in-depth knowledge of preclinical, translational and early stage clinical drug development. He brings extensive experience in pre-clinical drug development of protein-based biologics and small molecules. Dr Levitsky is a medical doctor with a PhD in Virology and post-doctoral training in tumor biology at Karolinska Institute, Sweden. He spent the first 20 years of his career as an academic research scientist, including Associate Professor positions at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the US. Before joining Targovax Dr Levitsky served as Tumor Immunology Leader and Senior Principal Scientist with Roche in Zurich, and his most recent position has been VP, Head of Oncology Research at Molecular Partners, Zurich, Switzerland.
Dr Levitsky is the author of numerous scientific publications.
Øystein Soug, CEO, commented: "It is with great enthusiasm that we welcome Dr Levitsky to Targovax! With his broad and deep oncology experience and with his background as a virologist, he will bring important scientific leadership to Targovax. As we progress towards several important data read-outs and move forward with our pipeline expansion initiatives, Victor will play an instrumental role in shaping the future for Targovax."
Dr Levitsky added: "I am very excited to be joining Targovax at what is clearly an important stage for the company. The oncolytic virus and mutant RAS technology platforms have clear potential to benefit cancer patients through current and multiple novel strategies, and I look forward to joining the strong team at Targovax to help build the scientific framework for bringing these promising products to patients.”
Dr Levitsky will commence as CSO on 4th May.
For further information, please contact:
Renate Birkeli, Investor Relations
Phone: +47 922 61 624
Email: renate.birkeli@targovax.com
Media and IR enquires:
Andreas Tinglum - Corporate Communications (Norway)
Phone: +47 9300 1773
Email: andreas.tinglum@corpcom.no
About Targovax
Activating the patient's immune system to fight cancer
Targovax (OSE:TRVX) is a clinical stage immuno-oncology company developing oncolytic viruses to target hard-to-treat solid tumors. Targovax’s lead product candidate, ONCOS-102, is a genetically modified oncolytic adenovirus, which has been engineered to selectively infect cancer cells and activate the immune system to fight the cancer.
ONCOS-102 is currently being tested in mesothelioma, melanoma and peritoneal malignancies and has already shown promising clinical results both as monotherapy and in combination with chemotherapy, and a checkpoint inhibitor.