HELSINKI, January 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Oncos Therapeutics, a biotech company developing novel cancer therapeutics based on its next generation oncolytic viruses, announced today the appointments of Dr. Jonathan Knowles and Dr. Robert Burns to the Board of Directors.

"This is one of the most interesting new approaches to cure cancer. The anti-tumor immune response induced by a virus that kills cancer cells is a very promising combination," comments Dr. Jonathan Knowles.

"Oncology needs new treatment strategies. Oncos Therapeutics has a wide body of promising clinical data from over 200 patients and ten oncolytic viruses. This is a great platform to build a great company," comments Dr. Robert Burns.

Dr. Jonathan Knowles has a distinguished career that has spanned decades in both academia and the pharmaceutical industry, including most recently his role as president of group research at Roche, a position he has held since 2007, and member of that organization's Corporate Executive Committee since 1998. Dr. Knowles was a member of the Genentech Board for the last 12 years and a member of the Chugai Board for seven years. He has also served as Chairman of the Research Directors' Group of EFPIA (European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry Associations) and was the first chairman of the Board of the Innovative Medicines Initiative, a unique public-private partnership between 28 Pharmaceutical companies and the European Commission with a budget of more than 2 Billion Euros over five years. In 2010, Dr. Knowles was awarded the Scrip's Lifetime Achievement Award for his long academic and commercial career distinguished by his passion for personalized medicine. Currently Dr. Knowles is Chief Scientific Officer and a Board Member at Caris Life Sciences.

Dr. Robert Burns has extensive experience in building biotechnology companies. Previously, Dr. Burns was CEO of Affitech (NASDAQ/OMX) and CEO of Celldex Therapeutics (NASDAQ), responsible for executing successful development, merger and financing strategies. Prior to Celldex, Dr. Burns was Director of Technology Licensing at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, where he held key leadership roles in the spin-out of 3 successful companies: Piramed in the UK, Lymphatix in Finland and Recepta, an antibody therapeutics business in Brazil. Prior to that he was Commercial Director at both Oxford Glycosciences and British Biotech. Currently Robert is CEO of 4-Antibody and also non-executive Chairman of Haemostatix.

"We are really excited with the wealth of experience Jonathan and Robert bring in opening new therapeutic strategies and building them into businesses that help patients," comments Pekka Simula, CEO and Co-Founder of Oncos Therapeutics.