OncoMed

OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Public
Traded as NASDAQ: OMED
Industry pharmaceutical drug development
Founded University of Michigan August 2004 (2004-08)
Founders
  • Michael Clarke
  • Max Wicha
Headquarters Redwood City, California, United States
Key people
  • Paul Hastings (CEO)
  • John Lewicki (R&D chief)
  • Chuck Alaimo (Operations director)
Revenue US$24,700,000 (2012)
Number of employees
  • 83 (2013)
  • 47 (2007)
Website www.oncomed.com
Footnotes / references
[1][2][3][4]

OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a public American pharmaceutical company headquartered in Redwood City, California.[1] The company was founded in August 2004 by two University of Michigan investigators, Michael Clarke and Max S. Wicha.[1][3] As of 2013, the company had 83 employees.[2] OncoMed's drug discovery work focuses on developing "targeted antibodies against cancer stem cells".[2] The cancer stem cell technologies on which OncoMed depends are licensed from the University of Michigan where they were developed by the founders of the company.[3] OncoMed went public in 2013 and is listed on NASDAQ under the stock symbol OMED.[2][3]

History

In 2007, Oncomed consolidated its operations located in Mountain View and Palo Alto, California onto the single headquarters campus in Redwood City.[1] One of the buildings on the new campus was the former home of NeXT.[1]

In 2012, OncoMed sponsored the USAN nonproprietary name vantictumab for a human IgG2 anti-Frizzled antibody, an anti-cancer therapeutic.[5] In the same year, the company sponsored the USAN name demcizumab for a human IgG2 anti-DLL4 antibody, also an anti-cancer therapeutic.[6]

In 2014, OncoMed entered into an anti-cancer stem cell therapeutic development agreement with Celgene encompassing demcizumab and five other biologics from OncoMed's pipeline.[7][8]

As of 2013, co-founder Max Wicha was the director of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center and remained a consultant to OncoMed, while co-founder Michael Clarke had taken up a position at Stanford University.[3]

Competitors

In 2013, OncoMed had at least two direct competitors, both public American companies: Stemline Therapeutics and Verastem.[2] By 2014, the list of firms pursuing therapies targeting cancer stem cells had grown to include Boston Biomedical (a subsidiary of Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma), GlaxoSmithKline, Astellas Pharma, Sanofi (the American subsidiary) and Pfizer; however, Stemline and Verastem remain the only two competitors solely focused on cancer stem cells.[7] One analyst holds that OncoMed is the best positioned of the three companies focused on the cancer stem cell area.[7]

Pipeline

Clinical pipeline, Oct 2014[7]
Name ID Clinical Phase
demcizumab Ib/II
tarextumab Ib/II
Anti-Notch 2/3 OMP-59R5[9] Ib/II
vantictumab OMP-18R5[4] Ib
ipafricept OMP-54F28[10] Ib
Anti-Notch1 I

As of October 2014, Oncomed had five clinical-stage drugs in development and two discovery-stage investigations; no OncoMed therapies have made it to market yet.[7] Two candidate drugs being co-developed with Bayer, ipafricept and vantictumab, showed in mid-2014 indications of "causing mild-to-moderate bone-related side effects" among Phase I clinical trial participants, an observation which led the company to halt enrollment and dosing in the trials, and which contributed to a sharp decline in share price.[7][10][11]

Corporate governance

As of 2013, OncoMed's chief executive officer (CEO) was Paul Hastings,[2] who took the post in 2006.[12] As of 2007, the company's head of R&D was John Lewicki, and the director of operations was Chuck Alaimo.[1]

Paul Hastings

While serving as OncoMed's CEO, Hastings was also a member of the board of directors for the California Healthcare Institute and the Bay Area Biosciences Association, as well as chairing the board of the Biotechnology Industry Organization.[12] Hastings education includes a bachelor's degree in pharmacy from the University of Rhode Island.[12]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Leuty, Ron (28 Oct 2007). "The NeXT big thing: OncoMed finds a home". San Francisco Business Times.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Timmerman, Luke (18 Jun 2013). "OncoMed Pharmaceuticals Soars in IPO Debut". Xconomy. United States.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "U-M start-up OncoMed has initial public offering" (Press release). University of Michigan Health System. 22 Jul 2013.
  4. 1 2 Leuty, Ron (5 Jul 2013). "OncoMed targets 4 million shares in IPO". San Francisco Business Times.
  5. "Statement on a nonproprietary name adopted by the USAN Council" (PDF). AMA. 28 Nov 2012. N12/155.(registration required)
  6. "Statement on a nonproprietary name adopted by the USAN Council" (PDF). AMA. N12/07. Retrieved 1 Dec 2014.(registration required)
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 De, Kanak Kanti (14 Oct 2014). "Is It Time To Consider OncoMed Pharmaceuticals Again?". Seeking Alpha.
  8. Staff (January 1, 2014). "OncoMed, Celgene in $3.3B+ Cancer Stem Cell Collaboration". Industry Watch. Gen. Eng. Biotechnol. News. p. 8.
  9. "OncoMed Pharmaceuticals Initiates Phase 1b/2 Clinical Trial of Anti-Cancer Stem Cell Therapeutic OMP-59R5 (Anti-Notch2/3) in Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) and Amends Phase1b/2 Pancreatic Cancer Trial" (PDF) (Press release). OncoMed. 14 May 2013.
  10. 1 2 Grover, Natalie (13 Jun 2014). "OncoMed halts enrollment in trials of two cancer drugs". Reuters.
  11. Calia, Michael (13 Jun 2014). "FDA Imposes Partial Hold on OncoMed Early-Stage Cancer-Drug Trial". The Wall Street Journal.
  12. 1 2 3 "Paul J. Hastings". Leadership. California Healthcare Institute. Archived from the original on 2 Oct 2011.
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