Clinical-stage biotech Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: INFI) announced the change of 2 new Board of Directors roles including the appointment of Robert Ilaria, Jr., M.D. as Chief Medical Officer along with Brian Schwartz, M.D. who will be transitioning from role as Consulting Chief Physician to Board of Directors.
Infinity focuses on the development of eganelisib, a potentially first-in-class, oral, immuno-oncology macrophage reprogramming therapeutic which is designed to address a fundamental biologic mechanism of immune suppression in cancer.
About Infinity Pharmaceuticals
Infinity is working to innovate in the field of cancer through the advancement of novel medicines. Eganelisib is a first-in-class, oral immuno-oncology development candidate that selectively inhibits PI3K-gamma in multiple clinical studies.
MARIO-275 is a global, randomized, controlled combination study of eganelisib combined with Opdivo® in I/O naïve urothelial cancer. MARIO-3 is the first eganelisib combination study in front-line advanced cancer patients and is evaluating eganelisib in combination with Tecentriq® and Abraxane® in front-line TNBC and in combination with Tecentriq and Avastin® in front-line RCC.
The company has a collaboration with Arcus Biosciences to evlaute a checkpoint inhibitor-free, novel combination regimen of eganelisib plus AB928 (dual adenosine receptor antagonist) plus Doxil® in advanced TNBC patients.
Infinity completed enrollment in MARIO-1 in 2019, a Phase 1/1b study that evaluated eganelisib as a monotherapy in combination with Opdivo (nivolumab) in patients with advanced solid tumors including patients refractory to checkpoint inhibitor therapy. With these studies Infinity is evaluating eganelisib in the anti-PD-1 refractory, I/O-naïve, and front-line settings.
About Dr. Robert Ilaria – Infinity Pharmaceuticals Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Ilaria joins Infinity from Bristol Myers Squibb where he was most recently the CTLA-4 Development Program Leader. He was previously Executive Medical Director, Global Clinical Research and Development at Celgene and Program Lead Physician for the PD-1 inhibitor tislelizumab partnership with BeiGene. Dr. Ilaria progressed through increasingly senior leadership roles in the global clinical development of over 20 drug candidates during 12 years at Eli Lilly and Company, resulting in Fast Track and Breakthrough Designations and accelerated approvals, and provided medical support for global regulatory submissions as well as launch and post-launch activities.
Dr. Ilaria received his MD at University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas, Texas followed by internship/residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a research post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School and a hematology and medical oncology fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
About Dr. Brian Schwartz
Dr. Schwartz has over 25 years of experience as a drug development expert in pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries and has served as Infinity’s consulting Chief Physician since early 2020. He was previously at ArQule for 10 years where he served as CMO prior to the acquisition by Merck & Co. of ArQule in late 2019. In senior leadership roles at ArQule, Ziopharm Oncology, Inc., Bayer AG, and LeoLabs, Inc., Dr. Schwartz has accumulated a number of successful new drug applications (NDAs), numerous investigational new drug (IND) applications, preclinical and clinical drug development programs.
During his time in biotech, Dr. Brian Schwartz New York City acquired knowledge of investors relations, partnering and capital raising. Currently, in addition to the Infinity Board of Directors, Dr. Schwartz is a board member of Mereo Biopharma, Enlivex and Cyclacel pharmaceuticals and an advisor in different capacities to numerous biotech companies. Dr. Schwartz qualified as a medical doctor in South Africa followed by additional fellowship training in Canada.
