Phanes Therapeutics, Inc. (Phanes), a California-based clinical stage biotech company, announced on Tuesday that it has named Rita Laeufle, MD, PhD, as its new chief medical officer, effective 1 June 2023.

Dr Laeufle has over 18 years of experience in clinical development in oncology and she will handle the clinical advancement of the company's pipeline. She is a board-certified surgical oncologist with extensive experience in drug development in oncology across the pharma and biotech industry. She has held the position of chief medical officer at Imugene Biotech, chief medical officer at Oncolytics and several senior leadership positions, including vice president of clinical development & medical affairs at SFJ Pharmaceuticals. Dr Laeufle has also served as senior medical director in medical affairs for gastrointestinal disease at Genentech and senior medical science leader at Roche in Switzerland. She has also worked in pharmacovigilance for oncology and drug development for infectious disease at Novartis.

Dr Ming Wang, Phanes Therapeutics founder and CEO, said, 'We are excited to announce the appointment of Dr Laeufle as chief medical officer of Phanes. Dr Laeufle has played a key role in supporting our clinical programs during the past seven months as our chief medical adviser. Phanes has built a strong pipeline and initiated Phase I clinical trials for two lead molecules, PT199 for solid tumours and PT886 for gastric, gastroesophageal junction and pancreatic adenocarcinomas, respectively. The third lead molecule PT217 for small cell lung cancer and other neuroendocrine cancers is also expected to enter Phase I clinical trial soon. Dr. Laeufle's expertise will accelerate the clinical development of these programs. With Dr Laeufle's appointment, Phanes is well positioned to make important impacts in delivering innovative therapies for cancer patients.'