Bicara Therapeutics Expands Clinical Team with Appointments of Jeltje Schulten, M.D., MBA, as SVP of Clinical and Medical Affairs and Rita Dalal, MBBS, MPH, as VP of Clinical Development
BOSTON, March 26, 2024--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bicara Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing dual-action biologics to elicit a potent and durable immune response, today announced the appointments of Jeltje Schulten, M.D., MBA, as SVP of clinical and medical affairs and Rita Dalal, MBBS, MPH, as vice president of clinical development.
"With our first-in-class EGFR/TGF-β-trap bifunctional antibody, BCA101, advancing in the clinic for HPV-negative, recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and other solid tumor types, this is an important period of clinical development execution for Bicara," said Claire Mazumdar, Ph.D., MBA, chief executive officer of Bicara Therapeutics. "We are very pleased to welcome Jeltje and Rita to our talented team. They each bring significant oncology drug development expertise across multiple solid tumor types and we are confident that their collective skillset will help us to further accelerate and expand the BCA101 program to reach patients in need."
Jeltje Schulten, M.D., MBA, as Senior Vice President, Clinical and Medical Affairs
Dr. Jeltje Schulten is an accomplished medical affairs executive with more than 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining Bicara, Dr. Schulten dedicated the majority of her career to Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, where she most recently served as executive medical director, head of early development oncology and indication lead, global medical affairs. Dr. Schulten held various other positions at Merck KGaA including being a member of the U.S. launch team for BAVENCIO® (avelumab) in urothelial cancer, and senior medical director for the early development assets team. Before assuming these responsibilities, Dr. Schulten functioned as the senior market access director in oncology, head of marketing oncology in Germany, regional head of oncology commercialization, and global product manager for ERBITUX® (cetuximab).
Dr. Schulten received her medical degree from Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Netherlands and her MBA from the International School of Management RSM, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Rita Dalal, MBBS, MPH, as Vice President, Clinical Development
Dr. Rita Dalal is a trained physician with extensive and diverse clinical research experience including in solid tumor oncology. Prior to joining Bicara, Dr. Dalal served as executive medical director, oncology, at Mural Oncology plc and Alkermes, Inc. Before that, she served as vice president of clinical development at Symphogen Inc. where she led the clinical development plan for the company’s immuno-oncology antibodies. Earlier, she held roles of increasing responsibility at Daiichi Sankyo Inc. including senior medical director. Previously, Dr. Dalal held clinical research scientist positions with Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. and Eli Lilly and Company. She began her career as a biostatistician with ImClone Systems, PPD Inc. and Averion Inc.
Dr. Dalal received her MBBS from Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College (MGMMC), Indore, India and her MPH in biostatistics and epidemiology, from the University of Massachusetts.
About BCA101
BCA101 is a first-in-class, dual-action, bifunctional antibody designed to inhibit the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and disable transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) directly at the tumor site. This approach is designed with the intent to allow BCA101 to inhibit tumor proliferation, while restoring the cytolytic activity of the local immune cells.
BCA101 is currently being evaluated in a dose expansion phase of an open-label Phase 1/1b study in combination with pembrolizumab in patients with unresectable R/M HNSCC and advanced SqNSCLC and as a monotherapy for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma.
About Bicara Therapeutics
Bicara Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing first-in-class biologics engineered to combine the precision of well validated, tumor-targeting antibodies with the power of tumor microenvironment modulators. The Company’s bifunctional antibodies are designed to deliver an immunomodulatory payload directly to the tumor microenvironment to ramp up immune cell activity, offering the potential for synergistic therapeutic impact at the site of the tumor. Bicara’s lead product candidate, BCA101, is a first-in-class EGFR/TGF-β-trap bifunctional antibody in clinical development for multiple tumor types. For more information, please visit www.bicara.com or follow us on LinkedIn or X.
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