CAMBRIDGE MA., February 2, 2021 – Elicio Therapeutics, a private biotechnology company developing a pipeline of potent immunotherapies based on its proprietary lymph node targeting technology, announced today that Annette Matthies, Ph.D., has joined as Chief Business Officer. At Elicio, she will lead all business and corporate development efforts, including acquisitions, licensing agreements, partnerships, and portfolio management.
“Annette joins our team with a unique blend of success in a variety of organizations from big pharma to early-stage start-ups and everything in between, as well as in transaction and financing experience on both the buy and sell side,” said Elicio Chief Executive Officer, Robert Connelly. “Her analytical experiences in a multitude of disease areas, coupled with her exceptional immunology background, makes her a perfect fit for Elicio. With a ground breaking Amphiphile technology that has generated several IND-ready immunotherapy assets in cancer and infectious diseases, our goal for 2021 is to pursue partnership opportunities and we look forward to Annette’s leadership in this process.”
Previously at Receptos (acquired by Celgene in an all-cash $7.2B purchase), Matthies played an integral role in the company’s Initial Public Offering, follow-on offerings, and technology platform partnerships. In addition, she spearheaded the valuation assessment and indication prioritization for the multiple sclerosis (MS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) lead asset ZEPOSIA® and metabolic early-stage pipeline. Matthies also worked at Abbott Laboratories following the acquisition of Facet Biotech (a $450M all-cash purchase), in a post-acquisition integration position to transition new product planning practices to Abbott’s newly formed Global Strategy, Marketing and Services team. Prior to Abbott, Matthies held positions of increasing responsibility in business development and market research at Facet Biotech and Biogen Idec; she most recently was Vice President of Corporate Development at eFFECTOR Therapeutics where she led business development activities.
“I am thrilled to join the incredibly talented and passionate team at Elicio,” Matthies said. “We are building Elicio to be the partner of choice for immune system primers and enhancers of immune response. I look forward to supporting to the company’s next stage of strategic business development and partnerships as well as contributing to Elicio’s ongoing growth as a biotechnology company developing novel vaccines and immunotherapies against cancer and infectious disease.”
Matthies brings nearly 20 years of biotech experience from working in the therapeutic areas of oncology and immuno-oncology (IO), inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, metabolic disease, and fibrosis. She received her Ph.D. in Immunology, Microbiology and Virology at Loyola University in Chicago. Additionally, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in bioengineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich and EPFL.
About Elicio Therapeutics
Elicio Therapeutics, based in Cambridge, MA, is committed to transforming the lives of patients and their families by re-engineering the body’s immune response to defeat cancer. By combining expertise in materials science and immunology, Elicio is engineering potent Amphiphile immunotherapies, including lymph node targeted immunomodulators, adjuvants, vaccines, and cell therapy activators for an array of aggressive cancers and infectious diseases. Elicio’s lead Amphiphile vaccine, ELI-002, targeting KRAS-driven cancers will begin initial patient studies in solid tumor patients in the first half of 2021. These programs are followed by a broad preclinical pipeline of lymph node targeted immunotherapies. For more information, please visit https://elicio.wpengine.com.
Contacts
Elicio Therapeutics: Merina Zeller, 617-482-0042, mzeller@denterlein.com