For Meliora, these leadership adjustments signal the start of a new era. The fact that Claudio was promoted to CSO is evidence of his significant contributions to our platform and pipeline. David Li, co-founder and CEO of Meliora Therapeutics, stated, We are also thrilled to welcome Anand, whose expertise in cancer biology will be critical in advancing the company’s mission.
Meliora has promoted Dr. Claudio Chuaqui to CSO as a result of his leadership and skills in rapidly advancing several internal projects. With more than two decades of experience in the field of drug discovery, Claudio is a proven leader who has successfully moved oncology-specific therapeutic programs from the exploratory stage to the clinic. Throughout his long career, he has held senior positions at Syros, Astrazeneca, Celgene, and Biogen. He has spearheaded projects that have led to the approval of numerous clinically-proven programs, including Tagrisso (osimertinib), which is currently a cornerstone of the treatment paradigm for non-small cell lung cancer. With a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from the University of Waterloo and a B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Manitoba, he is a computational chemist by training.
Anand Selvaraj comes to Meliora from Novartis, where he oversaw scientific teams in drug discovery while holding the position of Director in the Precision Oncology division. Anand played a key role in developing multiple cancer drug discovery initiatives at H3 Biomedicine that resulted in clinical assets before joining Novartis. Anand has twelve years of biotech and pharmaceutical experience, which will be invaluable in developing and implementing Meliora’s scientific plan for cancer biology.
Meliora Therapeutics is using its patented machine learning-powered platform, AnchorOmics, to find and develop small molecule oncology medicines for high-value cancer targets. Combining the first multimodal mechanism-of-action machine learning algorithm with an elite group of scientists and engineers, Meliora is paving the way for a revolutionary method to develop treatments that could save the lives of cancer patients.
Meliora Therapeutics, a San Francisco and Cambridge-based startup, has raised $11 million so far and is assembling a highly entrepreneurial, multidisciplinary team with professionals in biotechnology and artificial intelligence. Its drug research division is housed in the Kendall Square incubator building of Bayer Co.Lab. Reputable foreign investors Village Global, BrightEdge from the American Cancer Society, HOF Capital, Pebblebed, and others back the company.
