Cumulus Oncology, an oncology and inflammation focused biotech, announces the expansion of its Board of Directors (BoD) and scientific advisory team with the appointment of Dr Manuel Aivado to the BoD and the appointment of Dr Brian Jones as a Scientific Advisor.
Manuel Aivado, MD PhD is a board-certified haematologist and oncologist with extensive experience in the pharma and biotech drug development field. He brings deep insights into the key features driving successful drug approvals, including the evaluation of unmet medical need. Manuel has been integrally involved in the strategic and operational aspects of six new drug approvals (NDAs), including four in oncology, in recent years. Manuel has a strong track record in successful clinical development strategies as well as successful business management based on his operational experience steering and guiding other private and public companies as an Executive or Board Director.
Commenting on his appointment, Dr Manuel Aivado said, “Having observed the exceptional calibre of the Board, the operational team, and the asset pipeline at Cumulus, the synergies between my own perspective regarding what makes for a successful development strategy and the aspirations of the Cumulus team is truly inspiring. I am honoured to join the Board as the Non-Executive Director appointed by one of our key investors, the Scottish National Investment Bank. I look forward to supporting the company as it works to advance the clinical development of its internal pipeline assets in order to achieve key value inflection milestones while also strengthening the company’s capabilities to acquire competitive assets.”
The company is also expanding its scientific team with the appointment of Dr Brian Jones as a Scientific Advisor. Brian is a PhD chemist with extensive experience of successful small molecule drug discovery and development in both pharma and biotech. He has deep expertise and insights across a range of therapeutic areas and novel target space, and he will support the progression of the company’s existing portfolio as well as enhancing the company’s ability to identify novel asset acquisition targets.
“Having enjoyed the opportunity to work with the scientific operations team at Cumulus in 2024, I have been following the company closely and have seen positive progress and the emergence of high-quality data. I therefore jumped at the opportunity to join as a Scientific Advisor. I have already been involved in a deep scientific dive on one of Cumulus’s key programmes to enable a positive decision to move forward to the next value-creating milestone. I admire that the team has a laser focus on scientific integrity coupled with clear patient need and commercial opportunity and that they embed data-driven decision making into their modus operandi.” Dr Jones said.
Cumulus’s chairman of the board, Dr Brian Gallagher, commented, “We are delighted to welcome Brian Jones and Manuel to the Cumulus team. I’m delighted to work with Manuel again on another exciting oncology startup. I have always been impressed with his passion for making a difference in areas of unmet medical need. His extensive experience as a board member, and chair, for several biotechs in the US and Switzerland will be a superb asset.” Dr Gallagher added, “Brian Jones made an excellent contribution when working with our scientific operations team last year, and it’s now a great win for us to have him on board as a Scientific Advisor. I am really looking forward to working with both of our new team members.”
Dr Clare Wareing, Founder & CEO of Cumulus Oncology, added, “I’m also greatly looking forward to working with Manuel and Brian on our mission to accelerate oncology innovation into world changing impact. Both are active members of the Boston biotech ecosystem, where we see significant potential for collaborations. These top-class appointments add momentum to our ongoing portfolio and asset acquisition activities to ensure only assets with the highest chance of commercial success are taken forward.”
In the last 12 months, the company has made significant progress on several key programmes and expects to share key data updates by the end of the year, including in vivo proof-of-concept results in oncology and inflammation indications.
