Jubilant Therapeutics appoints Luca Rastelli as Chief Scientific Officer

Jubilant Therapeutics announced the appointment of Luca Rastelli as Chief Scientific Officer. Reporting directly to the CEO, Dr Rastelli will lead all aspects of R&D for Jubilant Therapeutics and serve as a scientific liaison for the company to investors, partners and the medical community.

“Luca is a highly accomplished scientist and oncology drug developer and it is a pleasure to welcome him to the team. His experience and leadership advancing novel targeted therapeutics will be integral as we execute our corporate vision,” said Syed Kazmi, President and CEO of Jubilant Therapeutics.

“I am thrilled to join Jubilant Therapeutics and I look forward to working with the experienced management and scientific teams to further the development of the company’s exciting and innovative programs into the clinic and beyond,” said Dr Rastelli.

Dr Rastelli brings to Jubilant Therapeutics more than 20 years of oncology drug discovery and development experience, as well as business development experience ranging from startups to large pharma companies. Most recently, he was Chief Scientific Officer at Kleo Pharmaceuticals where he led all aspects of R&D for the company and was instrumental in bringing a CD38 targeting compound based on Kleo’s novel ARM technology to the clinic for multiple myeloma.

Previously Dr Rastelli was VP, Oncology at BioXcel Therapeutics where he helped bring the company to a successful IPO. He has held multiple preclinical and clinical project leadership positions at Boston Scientific, CuraGen, Sopherion and EMD Serono (Merck Serono). He led the initial development of c-MET inhibitor TEPMETKO, approved for the treatment of METex14 positive NSCLC patients. Dr Rastelli was also part of the initial development of the immuno-oncology antibody BAVENCIO, a PDL-1 inhibitor approved for several types of cancers. He received the American Brain Tumor Association’s 25th Anniversary Translational grant for his work on Medulloblastoma tumours at the Department of Neuro-Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is a named inventor on more than 10 issued patents and holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Geneva.