Exhibit 99.1
ALX Oncology Realigns Executive Leadership Team
- Jason Lettmann appointed as Chief Executive Officer
- Dr. Jaume Pons transitions to Chief Scientific Officer
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., September 6, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) ALX Oncology Holdings Inc., (ALX Oncology or
the Company) (Nasdaq: ALXO), an immuno-oncology company developing therapies that block the CD47 immune checkpoint pathway, today announced that Jason Lettmann, a member of the Board of Directors, will succeed Jaume Pons, Ph.D. as Chief
Executive Officer, effective September 6, 2023. Dr. Pons will transition to the role of Chief Scientific Officer and remain President and both executives will remain members of the Board of Directors.
The realignment of our leadership team is a natural next step in the evolution the Company as our lead platform asset, evorpacept, advances to the
latter stages of clinical development with numerous datapoints across multiple indications in combination with anti-cancer antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, and
PD-1/PDL-1 immune checkpoint inhibitors expected over the next 12 to 18 months, commented Corey Goodman, Ph.D., Executive Chairman of ALX Oncology. As such,
in collaboration with the Board and management team, Dr. Jaume Pons, our founder and the scientific inventor of evorpacept, will transition to the role of Chief Scientific Officer to focus on scientifically supporting evorpacept and pipeline
extension programs and Jason Lettmann, a longstanding Board member with exceptional experience in the biotechnology industry, will assume the role of Chief Executive Officer.
Jason Lettmann has been involved with ALX Oncology for nearly a decade since its founding, having co-led the
Companys first institutional financing and serving as a member of the Companys Board of Directors since 2015. Jason brings to the Chief Executive Officer post a broad suite of expertise relevant to ALX Oncology at its current stage of
development including serving as Chief Executive Officer of Promedior, Inc., a biotechnology company developing targeted medicines to treat fibrosis. During his tenure, Promedior was acquired by Roche in 2020 for up to $1.39 billion. He also
has extensive experience as an institutional healthcare investor at Lightstone Ventures from its inception in 2012 to July 2023 having served as a General Partner, and a General Partner at Morgenthaler Ventures, a venture capital and private equity
firm, since June 2009, and as Vice President at Split Rock Partners, a venture capital firm, from June 2006 to June 2009. Mr. Lettmann has been a member of the Board of Directors of several public and privately held companies and involved in
numerous successful exits including Ra Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company acquired by UCB. Mr. Lettmann holds a B.A. from the University of Iowa and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigans Ross School of Business.
Im thrilled by the opportunity to work alongside Jaume and the entire team as we enter this new period of corporate and clinical development
anchored by evorpacepts ASPEN-06 program in HER2-positive gastric cancer which remains on track to report Phase 2 data in Q423, commented Jason Lettmann, Chief Executive Officer of ALX
Oncology. As we advance evorpacept into late clinical development, we are excited to realize the full potential of this therapeutic target for patients.
Since ALXs founding in 2015, its been an incredible journey and a privilege developing therapies for patients and Im grateful that
evorpacepts clinical pipeline maturity in combination with anti-cancer antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates (or ADCs) and immune checkpoint inhibitors has reached the point where I can dedicate more time to the scientific aspects of evorpacept
and its current and future combinations while creating a pipeline of new compounds that could be combined with evorpacept as well as be developed on their own, commented Dr. Jaume Pons, Founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer of
ALX Oncology. I believe we have found the ideal successor in Jason who has a robust understanding of our clinical programs and unrelenting conviction in the potential of our anti-CD47 targeted therapy. I look forward to continuing our
corporate mission together.