Parthenon Therapeutics CEO exits weeks after co-founder leaves

Parthenon Therapeutics’ CEO and co-founder Laurent Audoly is no longer steering the ship of the cancer biotech, Endpoints News has learned.

Tamas Oravecz

Audoly’s departure comes just weeks after co-founder and chief business and operating officer Olga Granaturova left to take on the same posts at Normunity, another privately-held immunotherapy startup. CSO Tamas Oravecz also traded in his CSO hat for the same role at Simcere last August.

The two had co-founded Parthenon with drug discovery leader C. Glenn Begley and clinical sciences head Guy Travis Clifton. The Boston startup launched in 2019 with a goal of attacking the protective barrier around cancer cells by reprogramming the microenvironment surrounding the tumor.

Audoly, board members and the company did not respond to requests for comment. The CEO was previously chief executive and president of Kymera Therapeutics and has co-founded cell therapy developer Cytovia Therapeutics and tRNA biotech Theonys.

Pfizer’s venture arm, Northpond Ventures, Taiho Ventures and other investors bankrolled a $65 million Series A for Parthenon in 2021.

Last November, the biotech disclosed a licensing and supply agreement to use ImaginAb’s CD8 imaging technology in a Phase I study expected to begin in the third quarter of this year. Parthenon said preclinical data pointed to “significant opportunity to address immune-excluded tumors,” such as non-small cell lung cancer, ovarian, pancreatic, colorectal and triple-negative breast cancer.

Parthenon had said it would test PRTH-101 as a single therapeutic and as a combination therapy alongside an anti-PD-L1.

therapeutics
cell therapy
immunotherapy
biotech