Scorpion Therapeutics Announces New CEO Axel Hoos, M.D., Ph.D.

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Dr. Hoos will join Scorpion Therapeutics as CEO in August 2021. (Photo: Business Wire)

“I’m excited to join Scorpion Therapeutics, which is set up to deliver precision medicine 2.0 with the potential to address many unmet needs in the current cancer treatment landscape,” said Dr. Axel Hoos, M.D., Ph.D. “Scorpion’s unique capabilities in medicinal and computational chemistry, combined with chemical proteomics, enable rapid high-quality drug discovery and have led to a robust preclinical pipeline. I look forward to building a leading next-generation oncology company, with the goal of delivering best- and first-in-class medicines to many cancer patients.”

Prior to Scorpion, Dr. Hoos served as Senior Vice President, R&D Governance Chair, and Therapeutic Area Head for oncology at GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (GSK). He was responsible for technical and funding decisions and re-built the oncology business after GSK’s 2015 divestment of oncology products to Novartis, across all therapeutic modalities in the focus areas of immuno-oncology, synthetic lethality, tumor cell targeting, epigenetics, and cell & gene therapy.

“Dr. Hoos is a distinguished physician-scientist, entrepreneur and business leader with substantial experience building visionary oncology programs to provide better medicines to patients with hard-to-treat diseases,” said Scorpion founder, Keith Flaherty, M.D. “He shares Scorpion’s commitment to delivering best-in-class R&D, and he is the ideal leader to guide the company as it advances its lead programs toward the clinic and expands the applications of its fully-integrated drug hunting engine.”

Dr. Hoos is recognized as an immuno-oncology pioneer for his work on the development of the anti-CTLA-4 antibody ipilimumab, the first FDA-approved checkpoint immunotherapy, and the creation of a new development paradigm for cancer immunotherapies, which launched the field of immuno-oncology. Dr. Hoos serves as a member of the Board of Trustees at the Sabin Vaccine Institute, Co-Founder and Director on the Board at Imugene, Director on the Board of TCR2 and Member of the Executive Committee of the PACT Initiative of the Biden Cancer Moonshot. Additionally, at the Cancer Research Institute he serves as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board and Co-Director of the Cancer Immunotherapy Consortium.

“Scorpion is fortunate to benefit from his broad and deep scientific expertise in oncology, his leadership experience and his deep understanding of the patient experience,” said Scorpion Board of Directors member Jean-Francois Formela, M.D. “I look forward to Dr. Hoos’ many insights and contributions as we continue to build Scorpion into a preeminent biotech company with a broad and diversified portfolio in oncology.”

About Scorpion Therapeutics

Scorpion Therapeutics is a next-generation oncology company developing best-in-class or first-in-class precision medicines to deliver transformational outcomes for patients with cancer. To achieve this, Scorpion is applying world-leading expertise in medicinal and computational chemistry paired with chemical proteomics to improve tumor targeting and access to previously undruggable targets for many cancer patients.

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