Tony Reid, MD, PhD, Chief Executive Officer, EpicentRx, Inc.
The last name of virologist, GI oncologist, and EpicentRx CEO, Dr. Tony Reid, MD, PhD is very on point.
That’s because he’s an open book, and easy to Reid.
By word and by deed, what Tony Reid wants almost as much as he wants anything is to eradicate cancer.
He’s devoted most of his adult life to it.
From his MD/PhD at Stanford University to his previous appointment as Director of the Clinical Trials Office (CTO) at the UCSD Moores Cancer Center, to his current role as CEO of EpicentRx and Professor Emeritus at UCSD where he still sees cancer patients, Tony Reid lives, breathes, and sleeps oncology—and it shows. Few are as knowledgeable or as committed to patient care as he is. For example, on his daily morning runs, Tony, a lifelong learner, who also reads extensively, listens not to music, but to recorded “Best of ASCO GI” lectures so he always stays current and up to date with new developments in his chosen field.
Recognized as a Castle and Connolly Top Doctor for cancer since 2009, Tony connects with his patients on a visceral level and really gets to know them, not as patients, but as individuals, as persons with lives, hopes, and dreams outside of the cancer center. Patients know he cares about them, that he’s 100% “on their side” and willing to go the extra mile. That’s why they nominate him for the Top Doctor award every year. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that he’s kind and reassuring not to mention unbelievably creative, as the over 100 medical/clinical patents that he’s filed attest to. In fact, one of his patents became a successful product that still sells well called the Reid Sleeve, which, by the way, is not the name he would have chosen, for the treatment of lymphedema in breast cancer patients.
One of the oncolytic adenoviruses that Tony developed is called AdAPT-001. Having successfully completed a Phase 1 clinical trial, it is now about to enter two Phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of sarcomas and liver predominant colorectal cancer. AdAPT-001 expresses a TGF-β trap when it infects cancer. This TGF-β trap binds to and neutralizes the cytokine, TGF-β, which tumors overexpress to shut down the immune system that can potentially eradicate it.
It is Tony’s sincere hope—and deep down we also suspect his core belief—that AdAPT-001 and EpicentRx’s other lead late-stage therapy, RRx-001 (generic name nibrozetone), will emerge as game-changers for patients and their families.
If he’s proved right, and, like his patients, in Tony we trust, you can certainly Reid about it here.