On May 3, 2022 Oncotelic Therapeutics, Inc. ("Oncotelic" or the "Company" or "We") (OTCQB:OTLC), reported the appointment of Dr. Fatih Uckun as its Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Uckun will be responsible for execution of internal company led registrational trials (Press release, Mateon Therapeutics, MAY 3, 2022, View Source [SID1234613789]).
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"The addition of Dr. Uckun to our executive team, comes at a critical time for Oncotelic. We have made significant inroads toward our goal of developing OT-101 as treatment for difficult to treat cancers," said Dr. Vuong Trieu, CEO and Chairman. "Dr. Uckun is one of the highest caliber physician scientists. His deep knowledge in clinical oncology and vast experience in translational research for successful applications of immunotherapy in oncology, especially for difficult to treat cancer subtypes will be invaluable, as we further advance OT-101 and the rest of our product portfolio."
"With the completion of the joint venture with Dragon Overseas Capital Limited for OT-101, we will be initiating OT-101 registration trials against difficult to treat cancers such as DIPG and pancreatic cancers", said Dr. Fatih Uckun, CMO. "I look forward to engaging the global oncology community in bringing OT-101 to these patients."
About Dr. Uckun
Dr. Uckun is an elected Member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), an honor society for physician-scientists, and an active member of several professional organizations. He received numerous awards for his work on monoclonal antibodies, recombinant cytokines and fusion proteins, radiation sensitizers, kinase inhibitors and targeted therapeutics for difficult-to-treat cancers, including the Stohlman Memorial Award of the Leukemia Society of America, the highest honor given to a Leukemia Society Scholar.
Prior to joining Oncotelic, Dr. Uckun served as Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Officer of Reven Pharmaceuticals (from 2020 to 2022), Chief Medical Officer of Ares Pharmaceuticals (from 2017 to 2022), Chief Clinical Advisor of Aptevo Therapeutics (2021), Vice President and Clinical Strategy Lead, Oncology-Hematology of Worldwide Clinical Trials (2020), Chief Medical Officer of Mateon and Oncotelic (2019-2020), and Executive Medical Director and Strategy Lead in Global Oncology and Hematology at Syneos Health (from 2017 to 2018). Prior to this, he was Vice President of Research and Clinical Development at Nantkwest, Chief Scientific Officer of Jupiter Research Institute and, before that, held senior-level scientific and research positions at Parker Hughes Institute and its cancer center, Paradigm Pharmaceuticals, and the Children’s Cancer Study Group.
Dr. Uckun earned his doctoral degrees at the University of Heidelberg, Germany where he also served as an active member of the autologous bone marrow transplant and peripheral stem cell transplant clinical research teams of the Tumor Center. Dr. Uckun completed his residency training in pediatrics, clinical fellowship training in Hematology/Oncology/Blood and Bone Marrow Stem Cell Transplantation as well as postdoctoral research training in immunology at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Uckun has more than 30 years of professional experience in developmental therapeutics with a special emphasis on targeted therapeutics/precision medicines and biopharmaceuticals. He has published more than 500 peer-reviewed papers, authored numerous review articles and book chapters and and is an inventor on numerous patents.
Dr. Uckun worked as a Professor of Therapeutic Radiology-Radiation Oncology, Pharmacology, and Pediatrics as well as Director of the Biotherapy Institute at the University of Minnesota (1986-1997), where he became the first recipient of the Endowed Hughes Chair in Biotherapy, and as a Professor of Pediatrics and Head of Translational Research in Leukemia and Lymphoma of the Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases at the University of Southern California (2009-2015). From 2012-2015, Dr. Uckun served as chair of the Biotargeting Working Group and a Member of the Coordination and Governance Committee of the NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer.