Vice President or Senior Vice President, Head, Drug Discovery & Biology

Acrivon Therapeutics•Watertown, MA

5d•$350,000 - $400,000•Onsite

About The Position

Acrivon is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing precision medicines utilizing its proprietary Generative Phosphoproteomics AP3 platform. The platform allows the company to interpret and quantify compound specific, drug-regulated pathway activity levels inside the intact cell in an unbiased manner, yielding terabytes of proprietary data and delivering rapid, actionable insights. The AP3 platform is comprised of a growing suite of powerful, internally-developed tools, including the AP3 Data Portal, converting multimodal data into structured data for generative AI analyses, the AP3 Kinase Substrate Relationship Predictor and the AP3 Interactome. These distinctive capabilities enable the company to go beyond the limitations of traditional drug discovery, as well as current AI-based target-centric drug discovery and rapidly design highly differentiated compounds with desirable pathway effects through intracellular protein network analyses and advance these agents into the clinic for streamlined development. Acrivon is currently advancing its lead program, ACR-368 (also known as prexasertib), a selective small molecule inhibitor targeting CHK1 and CHK2 in a potentially registrational Phase 2 trial for EC. The company has received Fast Track designation from the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, for the investigation of ACR-368 as a monotherapy based on OncoSignature-predicted sensitivity in patients with EC. The FDA has granted a Breakthrough Device designation for the ACR-368 OncoSignature assay for the identification of patients with endometrial cancer who may benefit from ACR-368 treatment. In addition to ACR-368, Acrivon is also leveraging its proprietary Generative AI-driven Phosphoproteomics AP3 platform for developing its co-crystallography-driven, internally discovered pipeline programs. These include ACR-2316, a novel, potent, selective WEE1/PKMYT1 inhibitor designed for superior single-agent activity. The Phase 1/2 study of ACR-2316 is advancing in a randomized dose expansion study. Initial data has shown a highly differentiated, favorable safety profile primarily limited to only transient, mechanism-based hematological adverse events, predominantly only neutropenia. Clinical activity has been observed across multiple tumor types, including SCLC, squamous NSCLC and lung adenocarcinoma, tumor types not shown sensitive to current single-agent WEE1 or PKMYT1 inhibitors. Durable clinical activity has been observed, with certain lung cancer subjects remaining on treatment more than one year. In addition, the company is in early IND-enabling studies with several potential first-in-class development candidates targeting CDK11. Position Summary Acrivon Therapeutics is seeking an accomplished R&D leader to provide scientific and strategic leadership for the company's drug discovery and research activities located in Boston, MA and in Lund, Sweden. The VP/SVP will lead Drug Discovery, Biology, Translational Science, and DMPK/Toxicology and partner with the Chief Medical Officer, Chief Development Officer, and broader clinical team in shaping the precision medicine strategy for Early Clinical Development, to advance programs from target evaluation through IND to clinical Phase 2 proof of concept. The company uses rational drug design and co-crystallography for chemical SAR and in particular leverages its proprietary phosphoproteomics platform, AP3, for biological SAR across all its drug discovery programs. The candidate is a data-driven, accomplished, proven scientific leader with a record of peer-reviewed papers in impactful journals. The ideal candidate will have experience with pathway-based drug discovery and OMICS data, in particular with MS-based proteomics and phosphoproteomics analyses and preferably have experience and understanding of pathway mapping. (S)he will have excellent communication skills and be a strong scientific integrator and decision-maker who can synthesize complex datasets. The candidate will identify the critical experiments needed to resolve uncertainty and translate emerging preclinical and clinical data into clear program and portfolio decisions. The candidate will have strong presentation and slide-making skills with ability to distill complex data into clear, powerful messages depending on the audience, both external investors, pharma partners, and analysts, Advisors, and Board members, as well as for internal teams and stakeholders. The position reports to the Chief Executive Officer and will be fully on site, five days per week at Acrivon Therapeutics’ corporate headquarters in Watertown, MA. As is customary in senior leadership roles, the candidate will also from time to time be expected to make him/herself available for urgent matters as needed outside normal business hours.

Requirements

Advanced degree in life science field (PhD, MD, MD/PhD or equivalent).
A minimum of 15 years (VP) or 20 years (SVP) relevant biotechnology/pharmaceutical R&D experience with significant leadership responsibility.
Outstanding oral and written communication skills and swift ability to lead a multi-disciplinary drug discovery and biology team across Watertown, MA and Lund, Sweden locations.
Data-driven individual with strong analytical skills and ability to rationally uncover mechanism-of-action of compounds based on high resolution proteomic and phosphoproteomic data of compound pathway effects and mechanisms.
Proven experience advancing small-molecule programs from discovery through IND-enabling development, with broad understanding of drug discovery, pharmacology, translational science, PK/PD, DMPK and toxicology.
Strong oncology drug development experience with some clinical development experience strongly preferred; additional experience in immunology and inflammation desirable.
Advanced expertise in standard software programs and ideally also in various publicly available OMICS analytics and visualization tools.
Highly developed expertise in generating visually appealing slides distilling complex data into powerful messages for external stakeholders, including investors, analysts, bankers, as well as for Board and Advisory meetings and internal teams and stakeholders.
Demonstrated ability to integrate multidisciplinary datasets and make high-quality research decisions even when navigating uncertainty.
Strong executive-level scientific communication and collaboration skills and ability to interact and collaborate closely with C-level team members.

Nice To Haves

Experience with pathway-based drug discovery and OMICS data, in particular with MS-based proteomics and phosphoproteomics analyses.
Experience and understanding of pathway mapping.
Additional experience in immunology and inflammation desirable.

Responsibilities

Provide scientific and strategic leadership across Acrivon's drug discovery portfolio.
Help drive the data-driven analysis of hit and lead proprietary phosphoproteomic data utilizing Acrivon’s AP3 platform, to uncover mechanism of action, and critical desirable cellular pathway effects early on in programs for particular scaffolds and series.
Integrate discovery, biology, pharmacology, translational, DMPK/tox and clinical data in close collaboration with the biomarker team, computational/data sciences team, proteomics team, and clinical team as well as individual stakeholders.
Drive program prioritization and key decisions from target selection and lead optimization through development candidate nomination, IND-enabling development and clinical translation.
Partner with functional leaders to define critical experiments, decision criteria, development risks and mitigation strategies.
Guide translational strategies encompassing mechanism, PK/PD, biomarkers, patient selection, and dose and schedule optimization.
Partner with Clinical Development to interpret emerging clinical PK, PD, safety and efficacy data and translate findings into development strategies.
Provide scientific oversight of external collaborators, CROs and consultants.
In close partnership with Data Science, Biomarker Development and Biology functions, co-lead and develop R&D leaders while establishing clear accountability and effective cross-functional decision-making.
Represent R&D in executive leadership and Board discussions.