Uvax Bio Appoints Pedro Garbes, MD., as Vice President, Global Medical Lead

WILMINGTON, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Uvax Bio LLC, a vaccine biotechnology company that utilizes its proprietary 1c-SApNP^® vaccine design and manufacturing platform to produce protein-based VLP vaccines to fight viruses that threaten global health, announced today that Pedro Garbes, MD., has joined the company as Vice President, Global Medical Lead. Dr. Garbes joins Uvax Bio at a key inflection point as the company’s recombinant protein nanoparticle vaccines are advancing in development. Dr. Garbes will lead medical, clinical, and regulatory functions in support of Uvax’s lead vaccine candidate for HIV-1 in it phase I clinical trials and guide development of the multiple preclinical-stage vaccines in the company’s pipeline.

“We are pleased to have Pedro join our leadership team as we prepare to take our lead vaccines to the next stage of development. With the help of Dr. Garbes clinical leadership, Uvax Bio will continue to optimize our portfolio and business strategies and to progress our promising pipeline of vaccines to address major areas of unmet need in global health. Pedro’s depth of experience in infectious disease, HIV medicine and strategic clinical vaccine development will be especially valuable as we advance our vaccines into human studies,” said Ji Li, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer at Uvax Bio.

Pedro Garbes brings to Uvax Bio over two decades of life sciences experience in clinical vaccine development, medical affairs, and medical/commercial strategy. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President at Gritstone Bio, where he was responsible for the clinical development and execution of Gritstone’s self-amplifying mRNA platform to develop vaccines against viruses. Dr. Garbes also served as the Global Clinical Head and Global Medicines Lead at AstraZeneca, where he was responsible for the development of their COVID-19 monoclonal antibodies combination. Prior to that, he served as the Senior Medical Director for Takeda Vaccines business unit, and he previously held positions with Sanofi-Pasteur, Allergan and GlaxoSmithKline.

Pedro Garbes earned his Doctor of Medicine and Masters degrees from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. He later served as an Assistant Professor and Lecturer in Medicine at Universidad Federal Fluminense (Brazil). Pedro has also served as a Lecturer at the University of California, San Diego teaching Clinical Trials Administration.

“I am excited to be joining Uvax Bio and I look forward to working with the rest of the management team to help advance our vaccines toward the market. I am enthusiastic about the groundbreaking 1c-SA-pNP vaccine development platform and its potential to provide broad and durable protection against threatening infectious diseases. I look forward to guiding the company’s multiple vaccine programs through the clinical development process,” said Dr. Garbes.

About Uvax Bio

Uvax Bio, a spin-off vaccine company from Scripps Research, employs proprietary Single component- Self Assembling protein Nanoparticle 1c-SApNP^® platform technology invented by Dr. Jiang Zhu of Scripps Research to develop and commercialize prophylactic vaccines for challenging infectious diseases. Uvax Bio holds the exclusive worldwide rights to the 1c-SApNP platform and an expanding portfolio of 12 patented preclinical vaccine candidates. In addition to the leading candidates in HIV, Uvax is also working to advance its vaccines for Universal Flu and RSV. The company’s technology enables the production of virus-like protein particles that can display 20-60 prefusion stabilized antigens targeting a wide range of viral and bacterial diseases. The vaccines are produced using a single step, universal, cell-based manufacturing process.

For more information, visit www.uvaxbio.com

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