Gilles Gallant, BPharm, Ph.D., FOPQ, Chief Development Officer, at Mythic Therapeutics has received the George R. Pettit Individual Input to the Field Award for 2022. The award was presented at the 13th World ADC Conference, held in San Diego, CA, during the 9th World ADC Awards Ceremony held on Thursday, September 8, 2022.
“While this award recognizes individual contributions to the ADC field, drug development is a team sport,” Gallant said.
“It requires strong collaboration between many functions, including discovery, pre-clinical, pharmacology, toxicology, CMC, clinical operations, oncology clinical development, regulatory affairs, biostatistics, data management, and many more. I am grateful to the teams I have led, and feel that my colleagues share in the honor.”
Pioneering work
George R. Pettit was a Regents’ Professor in Chemistry in the School of Molecular Sciences at Arizona State University (ASU). He was a pioneer in research leading to cancer therapies derived from marine organisms, as well as insects and plants.
Pettit and his team synthesized synthetic analogs of auristatins including monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE), which proved to be an invaluable payload for a range of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), several of which have been approved by the FDA for the treatment of a range of cancers. His many awards include the Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). His scientific career is the subject of the biography “Waging War on Cancer. Dr. Pettit’s Lifelong Quest to Find Cures”(Friesen Press, 2015).
Gilles Gallant, BPharm, PhD, FOPQ, has received the George R. Pettit Individual Input to the Field Award for 2022. In August 2022 he joined Mythic Therapeutics as the company Chief Development Officer.The George R. Pettit Award is granted annually during the World ADC Conference in memory of one of the field’s pioneers. The award serves to recognize recent successes, long-term commitment to the field and those who have gone above and beyond to ensure the continued success of the ADC field and bring more life changing drugs to patient’s hands.
Mythic Therapeutics
“All of us at Mythic Therapeutics are proud of Gilles and his significant accomplishments,” said Brian Fiske, PhD, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Mythic Therapeutics.
“The George R. Pettit Award is wonderful recognition of his contributions to the field of antibody-drug conjugates, and we are fortunate that he is leading the clinical development of our lead program in lung cancer as well as our broader product pipeline,” Fiske added.
In late August 2002 Gallant joined Mythic Therapeutics from Daiichi Sankyo, where he was Senior Vice President Global Head of Oncology Clinical Development and led the development of the company’s global oncology portfolio. At Daiichi Sankyo, he built and led the team that guided the clinical development, the global regulatory submission and worldwide approval of trastuzumab deruxtecan (Enhertu®; Daiichi Sankyo/AstraZeneca) for the treatment of patients with advanced breast cancer, gastric cancer and lung cancer (NSCLC).
Previously Gallant held leadership roles in clinical oncology at Bristol Myers Squibb, Human Genome Sciences and Biomarin, leading programs for paclitaxel (Taxol®; Bristol Myers Squibb) and talazoparib (Talzenna™; Pfizer). He received his doctorate in medicinal chemistry and bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from the Université de Montréal in Québec, Canada and is a Fellow of the Order of Pharmacists of Québec (FOPQ).
Mythic Therapeutics is a product-platform company developing a pipeline of ADCs designed to exhibit unparalleled therapeutic index and efficacy.
The company’s FateControl technology specifically enhances ADC uptake in targeted tissues by manipulating the fate of the ADC within the cell, thereby expanding the disease and patient profiles that can be treated with Mythic’s ADCs.
“I am delighted to be joining Mythic’s leadership team at an exciting time for the company and the field of ADCs,” Gallant said after joining the company in August.
“It is an extraordinary opportunity to blend the experience I have gained in research and development of ADCs in oncology with a truly creative approach to dramatically improve their clinical performance in both efficacy and safety,” he concluded.
Highlights of Prescribing information
Trastuzumab deruxtecan (Enhertu®; Daiichi Sankyo/AstraZeneca)[Prescribing Information]
Paclitaxel (Taxol®; Bristol Myers Squibb)[Prescribing Information]
Talazoparib (Talzenna™; Pfizer)[Prescribing Information]
Featured image: 2020 World ADC Awards; San Diego, CA.
