MaaT Pharma Appoints Nathalie Corvaïa as Chief Scientific Officer and Strengthens its R&D activities in Immuno-Oncology
Lyon, France, October 4th, 2022, 6:00pm CET – MaaT Pharma (EURONEXT: MAAT – the “Company”), a French clinical-stage biotech and a pioneer in the development of Microbiome Ecosystem TherapiesTM (MET) dedicated to improving survival outcomes for patients with cancer, today announced the appointment of Nathalie Corvaïa, Ph.D., as Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Corvaïa brings more than 20 years of experience leading drug discovery and development programs in oncology and guiding the advancement of product candidates into the clinic. She will oversee MaaT Pharma’s non-clinical research and development strategies as well as the Company’s proprietary, AI-based MET drug design and development platform, gutPrint®.
“Nathalie has an impressive depth of experience and track record in early-stage research and development of drug candidates in immune-mediated diseases. She joins us as we are generating exciting preclinical results for our first co-cultured candidate aimed at improving clinical responses in patients with solid tumors treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors,” said Hervé Affagard, CEO and co-founder of MaaT Pharma. “In this context, Nathalie will be instrumental in driving and expanding our scientific innovation and preclinical drug development strategy. I welcome Nathalie to the executive team and look forward to her contributions as we pursue our mission to provide the benefits of microbiome modulation to cancer patients.”
MaaT Pharma has established clinical proof of concept for its high-richness, high-diversity, native, donor-derived MET-N approach, with more than 140 patients treated in Europe to date in haemato-oncology with its drug candidates MaaT013 (for the treatment of aGvHD[1]) and MaaT033 (for the treatment of patients receiving allo-HSCT[2]), with promising safety and efficacy results. MaaT Pharma is now consolidating its second-generation drug development platform, MET-C. Leveraging its gutPrint® AI[3] suite and groundbreaking ecosystem co-culture technology, MET-C allows the design and manufacturing of indication-specific, donor-independent “MaaT03X” candidates. The platform opens new opportunities for the Company to address larger, and growing markets such as solid tumors, as well as to broaden its indication focus and potentially target other immune- and inflammatory-related diseases.
Nathalie Corvaïa, Ph.D. commented on the appointment adding, “MaaT Pharma’s approach of leveraging the full microbiome ecosystem to improve cancer treatment has the potential to become a new pillar in cancer therapy. With an exciting discovery pipeline and AI-powered engine, I am thrilled to join MaaT Pharma to guide the development of its next generation of therapies, to build the company’s momentum with the immuno-oncology program and to expand its early-stage drug development in this field.”
Prior to joining MaaT Pharma, Dr. Corvaïa was the Head of Immuno-oncology Research at The Pierre Fabre Immunology Center (CIPF) in France where she was responsible for the institute’s research activities in immuno-oncology from early-stage product discovery to Phase 1 entry, including GMP production of its products including biologics and live products. In her previous roles as Managing Director and Research Director, she led several diverse research teams contributing to a growing pipeline of products currently in preclinical and clinical trials in different tumor indications. Dr. Corvaïa did her postdoctoral research in cellular immunology at Novartis in Austria and obtained a PhD degree in Cellular Immunology at St. Louis Hospital in Paris, France. She has authored over 100 scientific publications and holds several issued patents and is also an active member of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).
[1] aGVHD = acute Graft-versus-Host Disease
[2] Allo-HSCT = Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
[3] AI : Artificial intelligence
About MaaT Pharma
MaaT Pharma, a clinical stage biotechnology company, has established a complete approach to restoring patient-microbiome symbiosis in oncology. Committed to treating cancer and graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), a serious complication of allogeneic stem cell transplantation, MaaT Pharma has launched, in March 2022 in Europe, a Phase 3 clinical trial for patients with acute GvHD, following the achievement of its proof of concept in a Phase 2 trial. Its powerful discovery and analysis platform, gutPrint®, supports the development and expansion of its pipeline by determining novel disease targets, evaluating drug candidates, and identifying biomarkers for microbiome-related conditions. The company’s Microbiome Ecosystem Therapies are produced through a standardized cGMP manufacturing and quality control process to safely deliver the full diversity of the microbiome, in liquid and oral formulations. MaaT Pharma benefits from the commitment of world-leading scientists and established relationships with regulators to support the integration of the use of microbiome therapies in clinical practice.
MaaT Pharma is the first company developing microbiome-based therapies listed on Euronext Paris (ticker: MAAT).