May 13, 2009
AVEO Pharmaceuticals’ Scientific Advisory Board Members Recognized for Contributions to Cancer Research and Medicine
SAB Members Elected to NAS and IOM; Honored with Awards from AACR and NFCR
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 13, 2009 – AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company leveraging breakthrough discoveries in cancer biology to discover, develop and commercialize targeted oncology therapies, today announced that members of its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) have been newly elected as members to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and Institute of Medicine (IOM), and honored with awards from the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and the National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR).
“AVEO sincerely congratulates our SAB members on these much deserved acknowledgements of their significant contributions to research and medicine,” commented Tuan Ha-Ngoc, president and chief executive officer of AVEO Pharmaceuticals. “AVEO is privileged to collaborate with leaders in the field of cancer research as we continue to develop and further our own translational research programs and advance our targeted cancer therapies in the clinic.”
AVEO SAB members Douglas Hanahan, Ph.D., member, Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and professor of biochemistry and biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, and Tyler Jacks, Ph.D., investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and David H. Koch Professor of Biology and director, David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, were among a select group elected to the NAS membership during its annual meeting in April in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
Charles Sawyers, M.D., investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, chair, human oncology and pathogenesis program and Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis chair, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, was also recently honored with the 2009 Dorothy P. Landon-AACR Prize for Translational Cancer Research which recognizes and promotes extraordinary achievements in translational cancer research. Dr. Sawyers delivered his award lecture entitled, “New Insights from old Cancer Targets: Kinases and Nuclear Receptors,” on Monday, April 20, 2009 during the AACR 100th Annual Meeting in Denver, Col.
In addition, Ronald DePinho, M.D., AVEO co-founder and SAB member, professor and director, Belfer Institute, Department of Medicine and Genetics, Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School was recently awarded the 4th Annual Albert Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research by the NFCR. This award recognizes outstanding scientific achievement in the war against cancer and honors pioneering scientists who are making extraordinary contributions to the field of cancer research.
Separately, Dr. Hanahan, Dr. Sawyers and Raju Kucherlapati, Ph.D., Paul C. Cabot professor of genetics, professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School were elected as members to the IOM in conjunction with its annual meeting late last year. Election to the IOM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.
About AVEO
AVEO is a late-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel, targeted cancer therapeutics. AVEO’s proprietary, integrated cancer biology platform enables the company to pursue highly efficient drug development strategies in oncology that increase the probability of clinical success and provides a discovery engine for high-value targets and therapies. This approach has resulted in a balanced pipeline of novel cancer therapies focused on well-validated targets (VEGFR, EGFR) and promising novel targets (HGF, FGFR, ErbB3 and NOTCH), as well as collaborations with Eli Lilly, Merck, OSI Pharmaceuticals, Schering-Plough and Biogen Idec. The company’s lead product, AV-951, a triple VEGF receptor inhibitor, is completing Phase 2 clinical development in patients with metastatic renal cell cancer and is expected to enter Phase 3 development in 2009. Through a combination of internal drug discovery and selective in-licensing of targeted therapeutics, AVEO is building a diversified product pipeline and moving toward its vision of becoming a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.aveopharma.com.
