Artios Pharma bolsters Board of Directors with appointment of Chris Liu, PhD

CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom and NEW YORK, April 09, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Artios Pharma Limited (“Artios”), clinical-stage biotech company led by pioneers of DNA damage response (“DDR”) drug development, announces the appointment of Chris Liu, Ph.D., Senior Research Analyst specializing in oncology at RTW Investments, LP (“RTW”), to its Board of Directors.

Niall Martin, Chief Executive Officer of Artios, said: “We are delighted to welcome Chris, a prominent research analyst to our Board of Directors. His deep knowledge of the oncology therapeutic landscape and breadth of relationships within the investment community will be invaluable as we further advance our robust DDR pipeline.”

In February 2024, RTW Biotech Opportunities Ltd, a New York-based investment firm focused on the life sciences sector entered into an agreement to acquire London-based biotechnology venture capital firm Arix Bioscience PLC. Through the acquisition, RTW acquired Arix’s portfolio, of which Artios was a large equity position.

Chris Liu, Ph.D. Board Director of Artios, added: “RTW is now a top shareholder of Artios following the acquisition of Arix and the expansion of our equity interest, which reflects both our confidence and excitement in Artios’ innovative platform targeting broad aspects of the DNA damage response. I look forward to partnering with the team and the Board to support them in their mission to bring new therapies to patients suffering from difficult to treat solid tumors.”

Chris Liu, Ph.D. brings over 10 years of financial and biotechnology experience, specializing in oncology therapeutics across diverse indications, technology platforms and stages of development. He currently serves as a Senior Research Analyst at RTW where he leads oncology research on biotechnology companies and covers life sciences companies in China. Prior to joining RTW, Chris spent 5 years in Business Development at GenScript, where his work focused on antibody drug discovery and development including novel immuno-oncology targets. He also helped design and optimize chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) constructs for CAR-T cell therapy companies such as Kite, Juno, and Bellicum. Chris received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from SUNY Stony Brook and a B.S. in Chemistry from Fudan University. He also received his Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Finance and Management from NYU Stern School of Business. He currently serves on the board of NiKang Therapeutics, Oricell Therapeutics and Nuance Pharma as a Board Director or Observer.

About Artios
Artios is on a mission to kill cancer by exploiting DNA damage response (DDR) and repair pathways that are leveraged by cancer cells to promote their survival. Our specialized DcoDeR platform integrates Artios’ leadership capabilities, expertise and experience in DNA damage biology and drug discovery to systematically discover and develop medicines targeting the totality of the DDR. We have built an extensive DDR focused pipeline designed to address areas of high unmet needs across solid tumour indications including our ATR inhibitor, ART0380, and our Polθ inhibitor, ART6043, as monotherapies and with combination treatments. Together with our strategic partnerships with Merck KGaA and Novartis, and research collaborations with premiere institutions like Cancer Research UK, The Institute of Cancer Research, The Netherlands Cancer Institute, and the Crick Institute we are pioneering validated approaches to DDR drug discovery. Visit our website at https://www.artios.com/ for more information about the company and our pipeline.