Aron Knickerbocker, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of RayzeBio and Five Prime Therapeutics, has taken the helm of Aulos Bioscience, a relatively new biotech company focused on the development of highly differentiated interleukin-2 (IL-2)-binding monoclonal antibodies the treatment of solid tumors.
Aron Knickerbocker Courtesy of Aulos Bioscience
Aron Knickerbocker, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of RayzeBio and Five Prime Therapeutics, has taken the helm of Aulos Bioscience, a relatively new biotech company focused on the development of highly differentiated interleukin-2 (IL-2)-binding monoclonal antibodies the treatment of solid tumors. Knickerbocker replaces acting CEO Yanay Ofran, Ph.D., who has now been named to the company’s board.
Aulos Bioscience was revealed in early January as a collaboration project between leading life sciences venture capital firm ATP and biotech company Biolojic Design. “ATP created Aulos with Biolojic to develop antibodies with unique properties that we believe hold best-in-class promise among IL-2 targeted therapies,” said Chief Scientific Officer of ATP Michael Ehlers, M.D., Ph.D.
“Biolojic has designed elegant and impressively simple molecules that redirect IL-2 to low-affinity effector T-cells away from high-affinity regulatory T-cells by binding to the body’s own IL-2, steering it away from immune suppression and towards immune activation,” added Dr. Ehlers. He stated that the company believes Aulos’ advantages could support the delivery of new mainstay therapies for multiple cancers.
Knickerbocker comes to Aulos following a long track record of leading several successful biotech organizations. His most recent appointments were co-founder, founding CEO and chairman of RayzeBio, a company that develops targeted radiopharmaceutical cancer treatments. RayzeBio launched in October of last year with $45 million Series A financing to advance its therapeutic portfolio. Before RayzeBio, Knickerbocker spent a decade at Five Prime Therapeutics where he held several executive leadership positions. At the end of his time at RayzeBio, Knickerbocker was President and CEO of the company.
During his tenure at Five Prime, Knickerbocker led the in-licensing of bemarituzumab, a lead asset for the company. Knickerbocker prioritized this agent in the company’s portfolio and advanced it into a randomized clinical trial. Findings from this trial showed bemarituzumab, when added to chemotherapy, offered a significant overall survival benefit as a first-line therapy for advanced gastric cancer. Following the bemarituzumab, Knickerbocker also expanded the clinical pipeline at Five Prime and also established several strategic alliances with other companies. Additionally, Knickerbocker was CEO at the time the Five Prime went public and before it was acquired by Amgen in March of this year for $1.9 billion.
Knickerbocker also previously led Genentech’s oncology business development, a responsibility he held for over eight years. During his time at Genentech, Knickerbocker led multiple collaborations that resulted in the marketing of several therapeutic products, including VENCLEXTA®, COTELLIC® and ERIVEDGE®.
“We are very pleased to welcome Aron as our new CEO,” said Ofran in a statement. “He comes to Aulos at an exciting and pivotal time for us as we work to complete IND-enabling studies for our lead pipeline candidate AU-007, a functional antibody computationally designed by Biolojic Design to solve the challenges seen in other IL-2 approaches.” Ofran added that the company hopes to start investigating its treatments in human trials before the end of this year.
“It’s a distinct privilege to join the team and board at Aulos,” added Knickerbocker. “In addition to the outstanding founding group, I was recruited by the simple elegance of the idea behind AU-007, and I commend the insight and innovation of Yanay and the Biolojic Design team. I believe that AU-007 offers possible competitive advantages in stability, immunogenicity, and manufacturing, and I am excited to advance it expeditiously toward the clinic.” Knickerbocker echoed Ofran and Ehlers’ sentiments by stating his hope in advancing AU-007 to become a “cornerstone immunotherapy that can help patients with cancer live longer and better lives.”
