Sutro Expands Senior Leadership Team with Addition of Chief Medical Officer and VP of Translational Pharmacology and Preclinical Development

SAN FRANCISCO, March 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Sutro Biopharma today announced the appointment of Arturo Molina, M.D., M.S., FACP as chief medical officer and Mark Lupher, Ph.D., as vice president of translational pharmacology and preclinical development (TP&PD). Both Dr. Molina and Dr. Lupher bring exceptional talent and over 40 years of therapeutic program development to Sutro. They have been added to the senior leadership team to further drive Sutro's late-stage preclinical and emerging clinical pipeline.

William Newell, chief executive officer of Sutro Biopharma, said, "The addition of both Dr. Molina as CMO and Dr. Lupher as VP TP&PD, will help to rapidly advance the development of our antibody drug conjugate and multi-specific antibody-based cancer therapeutics. We are excited about the depth of experience brought in by the newest members of our team. Arturo's experience leading emerging pipeline candidates into and through regulatory approval is critical as we move forward. Mark has helped to build and develop an exceptionally talented TP&PD group at Sutro as a consultant. Arturo and Mark are both instrumental additions to our senior leadership team."

Dr. Arturo Molina, an oncologist, has led scientific innovation and driven clinical programs forward for over twenty years. With his extensive experience interacting with the FDA and other global regulatory bodies, he has led the development of hematological and oncologic clinical candidates from phase I through phase III and through post-marking trials. He joins Sutro from his former role as VP of oncology and scientific innovation at Johnson & Johnson's California Innovation Center where he was involved in the evaluation of novel biologics and small molecules, with a focus on immuno-oncology. While working for Johnson & Johnson, Dr. Molina oversaw the approval of Zytiga® in a multitude of countries for metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer indications. Previously, Dr. Molina served as chief medical officer and executive vice-president of Cougar Biotechnology where his leadership efforts advanced the company's abiraterone program, Zytiga®, from phase I into several global phase III studies. He played a substantial role in the diligence efforts which led to the near $1B acquisition of Cougar by Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Molina has also held leadership positions at Biogen Idec where he led hematology/oncology clinical development and oversaw the post-approval label expansion of Rituxan®.  Dr. Molina was a faculty staff physician and adjunct professor in hematology/bone marrow transplantation and medical oncology/therapeutics research at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center.  Dr. Molina received his M.D. and M.S. degrees from Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, CA. He is board certified in internal medicine and medical oncology and has an active California medical license.

Dr. Mark Lupher has over twenty years of biomedical research and development experience. He has been an active consultant for Sutro's preclinical and translational initiatives for over one year. In his earlier position as chief scientific officer of Promedior, Dr. Lupher oversaw several IND applications and early clinical development for phase I and phase II clinical trials. Dr. Lupher also oversaw the development of Promedior's intellectual property portfolio. Previously, at ICOS Corporation and Immunex Corporation, he led various drug discovery programs. Dr. Lupher received his Ph.D. in Immunology from Harvard University in Cambridge, MA.

About Sutro Biopharma
Sutro Biopharma, Inc., located in South San Francisco, develops best-in-class antibody drug conjugate and multi-specific antibody-based therapeutics for cancer therapy, including Immuno-Oncology therapies. Sutro's discovery and development efforts are driven by our proprietary Xpress CF™ and Xpress CF+™ platforms, a biochemical synthesis system that enables rapid and systematic evaluation of protein structure-activity relationships, as well as rapid and predictable scalability for manufacturing in Sutro's cGMP facility. In addition to developing its own drug candidate pipeline, which is focused on mono- and bi-specific ADCs, Sutro Biopharma is collaborating with select pharmaceutical and biotech companies to discover and develop novel therapeutics.

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Russo Partners
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david.schull@russopartnersllc.com

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SOURCE Sutro Biopharma