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ABOUT US

Purple Biotech Ltd. is a clinical-stage company focusing on the development of first-in-class, effective therapies that harness the power of the tumor microenvironment (TME) to overcome drug resistance and improve treatment outcomes for cancer patients.


Our oncology pipeline includes NT219, CM24 and IM1240

NT219 is a small molecule targeting the novel cancer drug resistance pathways IRS1/2 and STAT3. We are currently advancing NT219 as a monotherapy treatment of advanced solid tumors and in combination with cetuximab for the treatment of recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck cancer (SCCHN) in a phase 1/2 study.

CM24 is a monoclonal antibody blocking CEACAM1, a novel immune checkpoint that supports tumor immune evasion and survival through multiple pathways. The Company advances CM24 as a combination therapy with anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors in selected cancer indications in a phase 1 study followed by a phase 2 for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Purple Biotech has entered into a clinical collaboration agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb for the planned phase 1/2 clinical trials to evaluate the combination of CM24 with the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo®) in addition to chemotherapy in patients with pancreatic cancer.

IM1240 is a conditionally-activated tri-specific antibody that engages both T cells and NK cells to mount a strong anti-tumoral immune response. The third arm of the compound binds to 5T4, a Tumor-Associated antigen (TAA) expressed in a variety of solid tumors and that correlates with advanced disease, increased invasiveness, and poor clinical outcomes. The compound is distinguished from other products targeting 5T4+ tumors both by its dual engagement of T cell and NK cells and by the cleavable capping technology. Currently, we are conducting the preclinical studies required for IND-filing.

Purple History

Our Mission

WE ARE COMMITTED TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF FIRST-IN-CLASS, EFFECTIVE THERAPIES THAT HARNESS THE POWER OF THE TUMOR MICROENVIRONMENT (TME) TO OVERCOME DRUG RESISTANCE AND IMPROVE TREATMENT OUTCOMES FOR CANCER PATIENTS

Executive Team

 GIL EFRON

Chief Executive Officer

Lior Fhima

Chief Financial Officer

FABIEN SEBILLE

Chief Business Officer

 MICHAEL SCHICKLER

Head of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs

 HADAS REUVENI

Vice President Research & Development

IDO MORPURGO

Vice President Operations

Board of Directors

Eric Rowinsky, M.D. has been Chairman of Purple Biotech's Board since October 2019. Dr. Eric Rowinsky’s principal expertise is in the development and registration of novel therapeutics to treat cancer. Since November 2015, Dr. Rowinsky has served as Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors and President of Rgenix, Inc. He also serves as the Chief Scientific Officer of Clearpath Development Inc., and has served as a consulting Chief Medical Officer of Oncotartis, Inc. since 2018 and Everest Medicines, Inc. since 2017. Additionally, he has been an independent consultant since 2016 and works with many other life science companies in providing expertise in developing and registering a wide range of novel cancer therapeutics. Dr. Rowinsky served as Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer and Head of Research and Development of Stemline Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, from November 2011 until October 2015. Prior to joining Stemline, Dr. Rowinsky was co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Primrose Therapeutics, Inc., a start-up biotechnology company, from June 2010 until its acquisition in September 2011. He also served as a drug development and regulatory strategy consultant to the ImClone-Lilly Oncology Business Unit and several other biopharmaceutical and life sciences companies from 2010 to 2011. From 2005 to 2009, Dr. Rowinsky was Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of ImClone Systems Inc., where he led the FDA approval of Erbitux®️ for head and neck and colorectal cancers and advanced eight other monoclonal antibodies through clinical development. From 1996 to 2004, Dr. Rowinsky held several positions at the Cancer Therapy and Research Center, including Director of the Institute of Drug Development, or IDD, and the SBC Endowed Chair for Early Drug Development at the IDD. From 1996 to 2006, he was a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. From 1988 to 1996, Dr. Rowinsky was an Associate Professor of Oncology at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He was a longstanding National Cancer Institute principal and co-principal investigator from 1990 to 2004, and was integrally involved in pivotal clinical and preclinical investigations that led to the development of numerous cancer therapeutics, including paclitaxel, docetaxel, topotecan, irinotecan, erlotinib, gefitinib and temsirolimus among others. Dr. Rowinsky was also an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at New York University School of Medicine (2008-2018). Dr. Rowinsky presently serves on the boards of directors of the public companies Biogen Idec, Inc., Fortress Biosciences, Inc., and Verastem Inc. He formerly served on the boards of directors of the public companies Navidea Biopharmaceuticals Inc. (2010-2018), BIND Therapeutics (2014-2016), and Biophytis S.A. (2018-2019), as well as at a number of privately held companies. Dr. Rowinsky received a B.A. degree from New York University (1977) and an M.D. degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (1981). He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of California, San Diego (1984) and completed his fellowship in medical oncology at The Johns Hopkins Oncology Center (1987).
Isaac Israel has served as a member of our Board of Director since October 2012. Currently, Mr. Israel provides advisory services to the Company since July 2022. Prior to that, from October 2012 until July 2022, Mr. Israel served as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Israel was the founding Chief Executive Oficer of BeeContact Ltd. (formerly TASE:BCNT), from 2001 until 2007. Since 2008, Mr. Israel has served as founding Chief Executive Officer of Uneri Capital Ltd., a consulting firm in the capital markets field, owned by Mr. Israel, which specializes in the healthcare sector. Mr. Israel served as a member of the board of directors and as chairman of the board of various private and public healthcare corporations.
Simcha Rock has served a member of our Board of Directors since July 2013. Mr. Rock served as a strategic consultant to Purple Biotech from January 2019 until December 2019. Mr. Rock served as our Chief Financial Officer from July 2013 until December 31, 2018. Prior to joining us, Mr. Rock was a private equity manager at Edmond de Rothschild Private Equity Management, a firm specializing in the management of venture capital and other private equity investments funds, from February 2000 until January 2011, with responsibility for all financial, legal and administrative matters for several investment funds. Prior to 2000, Mr. Rock held financial management positions at Intel Electronics Ltd., The Jerusalem College of Technology, and JC Technologies Ltd. Mr. Rock holds a B.A. degree from Yeshiva University and an MBA degree from Cleveland State University, and is a certified public account.
Ido Agmon, MBA, has served as a member of Purple Biotech's Board since June 2016. Since 2012, Mr. Agmon has been acting as an independent consultant and investment manager, providing start-ups, investment funds and technology-based ventures with advice in strategic & financial planning, fund-raising and related business development activities. He serves as a member of the board of directors of an Israeli privately held start-up corporation. From 2014 until the end of 2016, Mr. Agmon was a manager of Aviv New-Tech (formerly Aviv Bio-Invest), a private investment fund which manages a portfolio of public Israeli & global biomed and technology companies, of which he was a co-founder, and where he was responsible for analysis and evaluation of investments in Israeli and global biomed companies. From 2009 until 2011, Mr. Agmon served as the CEO of Meytav Technology Incubator, an Israeli-based accelerator for biotech, pharma & medtech ventures with over 20 portfolio companies. Mr. Agmon has served as a board member at a number of biomed ventures. From 2007 until 2009, he worked as the Director of Business Development at ATI incubator, a technology incubator specializing in biomed and cleantech projects, responsible for deal-flow and project evaluation. Mr. Agmon holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration & Life Sciences from Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel, and an MBA from The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
Ori Hershkovitz has served as a member of our Board of Directors since December 2021. Mr. Hershkovitz has held various positions in life sciences investment funds over many years. Currently, Mr. Hershkovitz is a board member and a senior advisor to private and public biotechnology and healthcare companies. From 2015 to 2019, Mr. Hershkovitz served as a Managing Partner and CIO of Nexthera Fund, a healthcare hedge fund based in New York, managing over $400 million in assets. From 2006 to 2014, he was the Managing Partner and Head of Research at Sphera Fund in Tel-Aviv, managing over $700 million in assets. From 2001 to 2006, Mr. Hershkovitz served as Senior Pharmaceutical Equity Analyst at Leader & Co. Investment House Ltd. in Tel Aviv, and from 1999 to 2001, he was a Pharmaceutical Equity Analyst at Ilanot Batucha Investment House Ltd. Mr. Hershkovitz currently serves on the Board of Directors of Matricelf Ltd. (TASE: MTLF), and from 2013 to 2016 was a member of the Board of Directors of MicroMedic Ltd. (TASE:MCTC) and Medigus Ltd. (Nasdaq: MDGS). Mr. Hershkovitz holds a B.A degree in Business Administration and Finance from Tel Aviv University, and is a licensed investment advisor.
Robert Gagnon has served as a member of our Board of Directors since March 2021. Mr. Gagnon currently serves as Chief Financial Officer of Remix Therapeutics. Prior to that, Mr. Gagnon was Chief Financial Officer / Operating Partner of Gurnet Point Capital, a healthcare venture capital and private equity fund. Prior to joining Gurnet Point Capital in 2022, Mr. Gagnon was Chief Financial Officer of Verastem Oncology. Before joining Verastem in 2018, Mr. Gagnon served as the Chief Financial Officer at Harvard Bioscience, Inc. Prior to this, he served as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer at Clean Harbors, Inc., as well as Chief Accounting Officer and Controller at Biogen Idec, Inc. Earlier, he worked in a variety of senior positions at Deloitte & Touche, LLP, and Price Waterhouse Coopers, LLP. Mr. Gagnon holds an M.B.A. degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a B.A in accounting from Bentley College.
Suzana Nahum-Zilberberg has served as a member of our Board of Directors since May 2021. Ms. Nahum-Zilberberg currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of BioLight Life Science, which is traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, and from 2011 to 2020 served as the CEO of BioLight. Ms. Nahum-Zilberberg also serves as a director at Human Xtention Ltd. and Nextferm Technologies Ltd., both of which are traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, and a number of private companies. Prior to joining BioLight, Ms. Nahum-Zilberberg held a number of leadership positions at Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries, including Vice President of Asia and Pacific and Director in the office of the President and CEO. Ms. Nahum-Zilberberg holds a B.A. degree in accounting and economics and a M.B.A. degree, both from Tel Aviv University, a Certified Director degree from Tel Aviv University, and studied at the INSEAD Asian International Executive Program. She is a certified public accountant.

Scientific Advisory Board

Eyal Gottlieb, PhD, is a Professor at the Department of Cancer Biology and Vice President for Research at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (MD Anderson). Before joining MD Anderson in January 2023, he was Director of the Rappaport Institute for Biomedical Research, Vice Dean of Research and the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Chair of Cancer Research at the Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. Previously, based on his independent research he became a Group Leader at the Cancer Research UK, Beatson Institute, where he established the Cancer Metabolism Research Unit and was appointed Professor of Molecular Cell Biology at the University of Glasgow. His research, which focuses on the metabolic vulnerabilities of cancer cells created by genetic or environmental constraints, has yielded several key discoveries on the tumor microenvironment that are useful to research and industry. He is a Senior Editor at Cancer Research, a member of multiple editorial boards and has co-founded two biotech companies.
Steven Maron, MD, MSc, is a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) who specializes in treating gastrointestinal malignancies with a focus on esophageal and stomach cancers. His research focuses on applying informatics to identify novel therapeutic targets and to improve patient selection for targeting and immunotherapies. He has a particular interest in elucidating tumor heterogeneity and developing clinical trials aimed at overcoming this barrier. His research has been supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute, Conquer Cancer Foundation, American Association of Cancer Research, Society of MSK, Cycle for Survival, Ullman Fund for Cancer Immunology, and Castle Foundation.
Sunil Sharma, MD, MBA, is Physician in Chief, Deputy Director of Clinical Sciences and Professor and Division Director of Applied Cancer Research and Drug Discovery at Translational Genomics (TGen), and also Professor of Medicine at City of Hope. His laboratory focuses on drug discovery and translational research for novel cancer therapies, including epigenetics and immune pathways. Under his direction, his lab has discovered multiple compounds that are in pre-clinical and clinical development to treat various solid tumors. As a practicing oncologist, he focuses on treating patients with a range of gastrointestinal and rare cancers, collaborating with others to develop novel therapies and to strengthen early clinical research. His extensive experience in drug development includes over 200 clinical trials focusing on novel agents for translational and early clinical research. Previously at the Huntsman Cancer Institute he was the Deputy Director, the Co-Leader of the Experimental Therapeutics Program and the Director of the Center for Investigational Therapeutics.
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