30 May 2019 - - US-based pre-clinical company BryoLogyx Inc. has named William Grossman, M.D., Ph.D., to its board of directors, the company said.

Grossman has had a career in oncology research leadership in industry, including at Genentech/Roche, AbbVie, Merck, as well as at several biotechnology companies.

He joins BryoLogyx following his recent appointment as chief medical officer at Arcus Biosciences.

Prior to this appointment, Grossman served as the chief medical officer at Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, a cellular-based therapy company.

Grossman has held several other global oncology leadership positions including Group Development Team Lead for cancer immunotherapy combinations in solid tumors and late-stage GI at Genentech/Roche, the US and Global Medical Affairs Head of Oncology at AbbVie, as well as positions at Baxter Healthcare Corp., Merck and Co., and Biothera Inc.

His career in the pharmaceutical industry followed his tenure in clinical and academic medicine, specializing in cancer treatment and immunology.

Previously, he had served as Associate Professor at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin and the Medical College of Wisconsin in the Hematology/Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplant Program, where he performed research in human immunology and was the founder and medical director of the Clinical Immunodiagnostic and Research Laboratory and Immunodeficiency Program. Dr. Grossman earned his M.D. and Ph.D. (Immunology) degrees from the Washington University School of Medicine.

BryoLogyx is developing a new class of drugs to enhance the response rates and treatment durability of cancer immunotherapies and anti-HIV agents.

The company's initial focus is on cancer, where it is capitalising on two recent scientific advances: the discovery that a complex natural product, bryostatin, stimulates tumor antigen production to amplify the immune response unleashed by cancer immunotherapy; and the invention of the first practical synthetic production method for bryostatin and analogs, enabling their availability for commercial development and use.

BryoLogyx has exclusive rights from Stanford University to the method's use in the areas of cancer and HIV. Bryostatin-1 is expected to enter Phase 1b clinical trials in 2020 to study its potential role in enhancing immuno-oncology drugs in the treatment of hematologic (blood) cancers.