Treos Bio Names Gábor Illés as Its Chief Financial Officer

SAN FRANCISCO and LONDON, April 03, 2018 -- Treos Bio Limited, an immuno-oncology company developing next-generation, off-the-shelf precision cancer vaccines coupled with companion diagnostics, today named Gábor Illés as its Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Illés has served as a non-executive investor director of Treos since the company’s inception.

Mr. Illés has more than 20 years of corporate finance experience. He joins Treos from BXR Partners LLP, where he was a founding partner. BXR Partners is the in-house investment advisory arm of BXR Group, a leading international investment group. Mr. Illés was responsible for originating and executing private equity investments globally and served as a member of the Investment Advisory Committee.

Mr. Illés, who will be based in Treos’ London headquarters, joins the company as it readies to begin a first-in-man trial of its precision cancer vaccine. In January, Treos announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had accepted its Investigational New Drug (IND) Application for PolyPEPI™ 1018, its investigational precision cancer vaccine for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) and has provided authorization to proceed with the phase 1 study in mCRC patients.

“As Treos turns its attention to raising larger rounds of capital and negotiating partnerships to advance its pipeline, the addition of Gábor as our CFO will bring deep corporate finance experience while maintaining financial discipline to make the most of our resources,” said Dr. Menghis Bairu, Executive Chairman of Treos. “He will play a critical role in building Treos into a successful immuno-oncology company that addresses the unmet needs of cancer patients.”

Mr. Illés has been closely involved with the company since 2014 as a representative for an affiliate of BXR Partners that is serving as the lead investor in Treos. He will continue to serve as a director at Treos.

“I have long had a strong belief in Treos’ science and the breakthrough potential of its precision cancer vaccines,” said Mr. Illés. “As a dealmaker, this new responsibility represents an unusual opportunity for me to actively contribute to making meaningful improvements in the lives of cancer patients.”

Prior to joining the U.K. arm of a predecessor of the BXR Group in 2008, Mr. Illés had a ten-year career in investment banking with Credit Suisse First Boston in London.

A British and Hungarian citizen, Mr. Illés earned an MSc in Business Administration (First Class Hons) from Corvinus University, Budapest and a CEMS master’s degree in International Management from the Norwegian School of Economics, Bergen.

About PolyPEPI^TM 1018 CRC Vaccine
The vaccine contains six synthetic polypeptides that are precisely selected to induce T cell responses against 12 epitopes from seven cancer testis antigens (CTAs) most frequently expressed in colorectal cancers. These polypeptides are optimized with the PEPI biomarker to induce robust and lasting CRC specific T cell responses.

About Colorectal Cancer
Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide, accounting for 9.7 percent of all cancers apart from non-melanoma skin cancers with nearly 700,000 deaths in 2012 from colorectal cancer worldwide, according to GLOBOCAN. While improvements in cancer care have boosted survival rates for all stages of colorectal cancer in the past two decades, the prognosis for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer remains grim. The five-year relative survival rate for patients with metastatic colon cancer is just 11 percent. For patients with metastatic rectal cancer, the five-year relative survival rate is just 12 percent, according to the American Cancer Society. 

About Treos Bio Limited
Treos Bio is headquartered in London, with operational subsidiaries in Budapest, Hungary and San Francisco, USA. More information can be found at www.treosbio.com.

Treos Bio uses data science and proprietary biomarkers to develop its precision cancer vaccines, with substantially shortened development timelines and at lower costs. Treos Bio’s off-the-shelf cancer vaccines are designed to exclude autoimmunity and induce tumor specific immune responses to be safer and more effective in patients who cannot benefit from current immunotherapies. Treos Bio’s novel biomarkers will support the development of in vitro companion diagnostic tests to identify patients who most likely to respond to treatment.

Treos Bio has completed preclinical development of additional members of the PolyPEPI cancer vaccine family with companion diagnostics to select likely responders. These patient specific off-the-shelf vaccines are designed for a general population of patients with ovarian-, breast-, lung cancers, glioma, melanoma, and leukemia. Treos Bio patient focused vaccine design also support the development of vaccines for single individuals and population of individuals with specific genetic background, including specific vaccines most effective in ethnic populations.

Contact
Daniel Levine
Levine Media Group
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(510) 280-5405