Christopher Haqq, MD, PhD
Dr. Christopher Haqq joined Elicio Therapeutics as Executive Vice President, Head of Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer in October 2019. He brings over 20 years of drug development leadership across large and small biotechnology companies and across cell therapy, small molecule and biologics in large and small biotech settings.
He was the first employee and Chief Medical Officer of Atara Biotherapeutics, and later Chief Scientific Officer, where he was the architect for an innovative T cell product candidate pipeline including specific EBV specific T cell product candidates for oncology and autoimmune disease, and he led the design of a next-generation off the shelf CAR T cells for solid tumors. Earlier at Cougar Biotechnology and Janssen, he was the lead clinician for a pivotal prostate cancer study leading to market approval for Zytiga® (abiraterone acetate). At Amgen, he led early development studies of the anti-insulin like growth factor type 1 receptor AMG 479 (ganitumab) antibody. Chris holds multiple patents and publications. He has served as the medical monitor for numerous oncology clinical trials and has worked closely with the US Food and Drug Administration and other global regulatory agencies. He has filed successful applications for investigational new drug applications, breakthrough therapy, priority medicines, special protocol assessments and their international equivalents, and marketing approval.
Chris initially practiced as a medical oncologist and led a translational science laboratory as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco following his post-graduate training as an Intern and Resident in Internal Medicine, Fellow in Medical Oncology and Fellow in Molecular Medicine. Chris completed his MD and PhD in Genetics at Harvard Medical School and his undergraduate training at Stanford University and the University of British Columbia.
In his free time, Chris enjoys jazz music, playing piano and tenor saxophone, and he loves to travel to dark sky locations to take astrophotographs of deep-sky objects.