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Avacta Appoints Dr Jose Saro as Chief Medical Officer
13 December 2018 - - UK-based Affimer biotherapeutics and reagents developer Avacta Group plc (AIM: AVCT) has appointed Dr Jose Saro as chief medical officer to lead the group's therapeutic development strategy and drive the in-house programmes into the clinic, the company said.

Dr Saro brings over 20 years' experience in the pre-clinical, translational and early clinical development of oncology assets, spanning small molecules, biologics and drug conjugates.

Dr Saro joins Avacta from Roche where he held the role of senior translational medicine Leader at the Roche Innovation Center Zurich in which he focused on immuno-oncology and the development of combination products.

Prior to his position at Roche, Dr Saro was Executive director Oncology Global Development and Medical Affairs at Bristol Myers Squibb, based in Paris, where he led and contributed to many oncology clinical development programmes, including Sprycel, Ipilimumab (Yervoy anti-CTLA4), Nivolumab (anti-PD1), anti-PDL1, anti KIR, anti LAG3, Brivanib, MEK inhibitor and Elotuzumab.

Previously, Dr Saro was executive director of Translational Medicine and Early Clinical Development (Oncology) at Novartis. Prior to that, he held senior positions at Eisai, and Wyeth.

Dr Saro has also experience of the small biotech environment, having spent several years as vice president Oncology Clinical Development at PharmaMar, an oncology focused biotech.

There, he was Head of Clinical Research and Development teams, comprising approximately 45 people, located in both Madrid and Boston, MA.

There are many opportunities for such a platform technology, and the recent collaboration with Tufts University Medical School is one example of a potentially game changing approach that is possible with Affimers.
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