Jul 19, 2023

Berkeley, California, UNITED STATES BERKELEY, Calif., July 19, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Valitor, a biotechnology company engineering better medicines to conquer drug limitations, today announced the appointment of Omkar Joshi, Ph.D., as vice president of CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls). “We are delighted to welcome Omkar to Valitor as he brings deep knowledge and a wealth of experience that will be instrumental in the next phase of our growth,” said Steven Lo, chief executive officer of Valitor. “Beyond his proven technical capabilities, impressive tenure as an experienced technical operations leader and successful CMC track record, Omkar has also proven his adeptness at building and leading high-performing teams in both small startup companies and big pharma. The combination of these skills will be invaluable as we work to advance into the clinic our lead product candidate, VLTR-557, an anti-VEGF biologic that, based on preclinical research, has unprecedented ocular durability, which may provide unique benefits to patients compared to currently available wet age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, treatments.” Prior to joining Valitor, Dr. Joshi served as vice president of technical operations at Actym Therapeutics where he was a member of the executive leadership team and was responsible for all aspects of technical development, manufacturing, analytical development and quality. Before Actym, he held the role of senior director, MSAT (Manufacturing Sciences and Technology) at Bayer. In his 16-year career at Bayer, he held roles of increasing responsibility, spanning drug substance and drug product process development, analytical development and preclinical research. Dr. Joshi has extensive experience working across various modalities including recombinant proteins, monoclonal antibodies, ADCs, cell therapies and gene therapies. He earned a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Oregon State University. “I am impressed by the innovation behind Valitor’s multi-valent biopolymer technology, which is engineered to overcome the limitations of conventional therapies,” said Dr. Joshi. “I am excited to join Valitor during this time of growth and look forward to working alongside this impressive team, unified in our vision of changing the future of ophthalmology and vision-threatening diseases.” About Valitor Valitor is conquering limitations of established drug targets by leveraging its multi-valent biopolymer technology to maximize benefits for patients. The company is engineering disruptive medicines that optimize how and where disease mechanisms are targeted to produce the most significant clinical impact. Valitor is initially focused on improving patient outcomes in ophthalmology and vision-threatening diseases. The company has won numerous awards and grants, including from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Eye Institute (NEI), National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), among others. Valitor is based at the Bakar BioEnginuity Hub at U.C. Berkeley. For more information on the company, please visit its website at https://www.valitorbio.com/ or follow its LinkedIn page . Investor and Media Contacts