The company was founded in 2015 by Max Krummel, Ph.D., a professor at University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine (UCSF), who has been making significant strides in immuno-oncology since the mid-1990s. Dr. Krummel is the co-inventor of YERVOY® (ipilimumab), the first checkpoint inhibitor, which was approved in 2011 to treat melanoma. Pionyr has exclusively licensed technology from UCSF based on Dr. Krummel’s work.
In 2020, Pionyr entered a transformational alliance with Gilead Sciences (read more) ahead of receiving IND clearance for its two lead programs PY314 and PY159.
