AUSTIN, TX – November 18, 2015 – Curtana Pharmaceuticals, a privately-held, preclinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing a novel therapy for glioblastoma (GBM), today announced that Gary W. Pace, Ph.D. has been elected to its board of directors. Dr. Pace is a highly seasoned biotechnology executive and senior operations manager of small and large-scale life sciences ventures in Australia, Europe and the U.S. He has more than 40 years of experience in the development and commercialization of advanced technologies, spanning biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical device, and food industries.
In 2011, the Corporate Directors Forum of San Diego recognized Dr. Pace as Director of the Year in the corporate governance arena. He is a director of four public companies: ResMed (NYSE: RMD), Pacira Pharmaceutical, Inc. (NASDAQ: PCRX), Transition Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTHI) and Antisense Therapeutics (ASX:ANP). He is also the Chairman and Director of several private life science companies.
“I am very excited to have Gary join our board of directors,” said Gregory Stein, M.D., M.B.A. and Chief Executive Officer, Curtana Pharmaceuticals. “His many years of corporate board experience with both private and public companies will ensure that Curtana has the requisite leadership and governance expertise needed to foster and guide our strategic growth.”
“I have great respect for Curtana’s leadership and the significant advances they have achieved in the development of their unique therapy for brain cancers,” said Pace. “I look forward to working with the leadership team to help advance the company clinically and strategically.”
Curtana is targeting the transcription factor OLIG2, which is critical in tumorigenesis and regulates the survival and expansion of GBM. Typically, OLIG2 is not active in normal brain tissue and is not found in normal tissues outside the central nervous system. However, it is highly expressed in all diffuse gliomas and nearly 100% of glioma cancer stem cells (CSCs) that are positive for the CD133 stem cell marker. The relevance for therapy derives from the finding that over-expression of OLIG2 drives turmorigenesis and promotes resistance to chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
One of a group of tumors referred to as gliomas, GBM is the most common and most aggressive of malignant primary brain tumors in adults. GBM incidence in the U.S. is approximately 10,000 cases per year. The conventional therapeutic approach often includes surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy, which targets the tumor bulk, but has limited effect on the cancer stem cells. Accordingly, a significant unmet clinical need remains in the GBM market as the median survival time is less than 15 months and five-year survival rate is less than 10%.
About Curtana Pharmaceuticals
Curtana Pharmaceuticals, founded in 2013, is a privately held, preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Austin, Texas. In August 2014, the company was awarded a $7.6 million grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. Curtana focuses on the development of novel first-in-class, small molecule therapeutics targeting cancer stem cells in the central nervous system for the treatment of glioblastoma and other cancers. Curtana’s OLIG2 inhibitors will be the only adjuvant treatment for nearly all gliomas, including high-grade glioblastomas, which specifically targets the cancer stem cells and is a potent radiosensitizer. For more information, visit www.curtanapharma.com.
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