FOSTER CITY, Calif., July 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- SutroVax, a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the delivery of best-in-class conjugate vaccines and novel complex antigen-based vaccines to prevent serious infectious diseases, today announced the appointment of Moncef Slaoui, PhD, to the company’s Board of Directors. Dr. Slaoui recently retired following a nearly 30-year career at GlaxoSmithKline, during which time he oversaw research and development as Chairman of GSK R&D, served on the board, and most recently built the GSK vaccine division into the lead position in the industry as the Chairman of GSK Vaccines.
“Dr. Slaoui is a distinguished leader, innovator and veteran in the field of vaccine development and we are immensely pleased to have him join our Board,” said Grant Pickering, CEO of SutroVax. “His experience and guidance will be vital as we advance our lead pneumococcal conjugate vaccine candidate into the clinic and expand our R&D, clinical development and manufacturing organizations.”
SutroVax’s broad-spectrum pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) is designed to provide expanded protection against circulating strains of pneumococcus and has the potential to replace the current vaccines used in infants and adults. SutroVax has generated pre-clinical proof-of-concept in head-to-head studies with its broad-spectrum PCV compared to current vaccines using well accepted immunological endpoints.
“I have been very impressed by SutroVax’s progress with its lead PCV program and its potential to transform the standard of care. The Company’s differentiated vaccine technology platform has the potential to deliver an array of new vaccine product candidates. I am delighted to be joining SutroVax at this exciting time,” said Dr. Slaoui.
During Dr. Slaoui’s tenure at GSK, he was instrumental in reorganizing the company’s R&D structure to facilitate innovation and improve productivity. He was directly involved in the discovery, development and oversight of GSK’s vaccine pipeline, which was the most productive source of vaccines in the industry -- yielding 14 new vaccines in the past decade and assembling the broadest portfolio of vaccines (48), of any company, with nearly a billion doses distributed annually.
Dr. Slaoui received a PhD in Molecular Biology and Immunology from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, and completed postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School and Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston. He was a professor of Immunology at the University of Mons, Belgium and is a member of the advisory board of the Qatar Foundation and on the board of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.
About SutroVax
SutroVax is an independent vaccine platform and development company whose mission is to deliver best-in-class conjugate vaccines and novel complex antigen-based vaccines to prevent serious infectious diseases. SutroVax conjugate vaccines are developed utilizing the Company’s exclusive rights to Sutro Biopharma’s Xpress CF Platform, a cell-free protein synthesis technology. The platform represents a major advancement over conventional conjugate vaccine production methods, by enabling precise and consistent conjugation of antigens to site-specific locations on a protein carrier that do not impede T-cell help resulting in higher-potency conjugates. SutroVax is utilizing these more potent conjugates to develop a broader-spectrum PCV product. For more information, visit www.sutrovax.com.
Contact:
Julie Rathbun
Rathbun Communications
206-769-9219
julie@rathbuncomm.com
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SOURCE SutroVax
