Brussels, Belgium, 8 October 2019 - Camel-IDS, a privately-held biotechnology company developing novel radiopharmaceuticals, today announced the appointment of Ruggero Della Bitta MD, PhD, as Chief Medical Officer of Camel-IDS, effective October 1, 2019.
“We are very pleased to welcome Dr. Della Bitta who will play a key role in the development of Camel-IDS’ clinical plan. With our lead product CAM-H2 advancing towards a phase I/II trial targeting HER2-positive brain metastatic breast cancer, we aim to effectively irradiate brain lesions while sparing healthy tissue, based on our unique technology platform that leverages the favorable tissue distribution of camelid derived single domain antibodies linked to radionuclides,” said Ruth Devenyns, CEO of Camel-IDS. “We look forward to benefiting from Ruggero’s substantial oncology experience and proven clinical development leadership as we continue to design and develop our next-generation radiopharmaceuticals”.
Dr. Della Bitta has more than 25 years of experience in oncology drug development, leading to the approval of several cancer medicines. Prior to joining Camel-IDS, Dr. Della Bitta was VP Product Development Oncology, franchise lead -antiangiogenesis and cancer immunotherapy- at Roche/Genentech in Basel. During Dr. Della Bitta’s eight years at Roche, he was responsible for the development of a number of novel bio-oncology medicines and combination regimens, including Avastin in several solid tumor indications and in combo with cancer immunotherapy atezolizumab, pertuzumab and rituximab. He also served as Global Head of Clinical Evaluation in the Roche-Partnering division, contributing to in-licensing of oncology assets.
From 2004 to 2011, Dr. Della Bitta was VP Oncology New Therapies for Merck-Serono, based in Geneva. In this role, he led medical affairs strategies for Erbitux in GI and H&N malignancies and R&D development programs with Merck-Serono pipeline compounds in solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. Earlier, Dr. Della Bitta held positions of increasing responsibility in oncology clinical development and general management - Phases I-III at Chiron in US and EU and General Manager Italy in Quintiles/Iqvia. In Chiron, he was the global Medical Director for the development of rIL-2 (Proleukin) that obtained FDA and CHMP approval in metastatic Renal Cell Cancer and Advanced Melanoma. Prior to his industry experience, Dr. Della Bitta worked in the Medical Faculty of the Division of Internal Medicine and Hematology at the University of Ancona in Italy and at the Cancer Institute in Milano. Dr. Della Bitta is board certified in Internal Medicine and Hematology.
Dr. Della Bitta commented: “It is with great pleasure that I join the Camel-IDS team as Chief Medical Officer. I’m excited about the potential of the company’s technology platform and product pipeline and look forward to deploy my expertise to advance the clinical development in close collaboration with the team”.
About Camel-IDS
Camel-IDS is a privately-held, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to extending and improving the lives of cancer patients by designing and developing novel radiopharmaceuticals, using camelid single domain antibody fragments (sdAb) labeled with radioisotopes. The Company is advancing its lead product CAM-H2 towards a phase I/II trial targeting HER2-positive brain metastatic breast cancer, while further progressing and broadening its preclinical pipeline. Breast cancer patients with tumors that overexpress HER2, a growth-promoting protein, can benefit from effective targeted treatments today, yet have a poor prognosis when the cancer progresses towards the brain. Camel-IDS’ lead program CAM-H2 aims to effectively irradiate brain lesions while sparing healthy tissue, based on its unique technology platform that leverages the favorable tissue distribution of camelid derived single domain antibodies linked to radionuclides. The company’s technology platform also allows for a theranostic approach, where patients can be selected using a low dose/imaging version of the product, followed by a high therapeutic dose for treatment.
Camel-IDS, a VUB spin-off company incorporated in 2014, secured EUR 37m in a Series A investment round in November 2018, led by V-Bio Ventures (Belgium) and Gimv (Belgium), joined by the co-lead investors HealthCap (Sweden), Novo Seeds (Denmark), Pontifax (Israel), BioMedPartners (Switzerland) and existing investors.
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