Kura Oncology Adds Kyowa Kirin’s Stephen Dale as Chief Medical Officer

Stephen Dale has joined Kura Oncology (NASDAQ: [[ticker:KURA]]) as its chief medical officer. He was most recently global head of medical science, with a primary focus in oncology, at Kyowa Kirin. Prior he held various roles at AstraZeneca (NYSE: [[ticker:AZN]]), including clinical head of oncology.

The CMO role at Kura was previously held by company co-founder Antonio Gualberto, who joined Eisai subsidiary H3 Biomedicine in February. Kura’s vice president of clinical development, Bridget Martell, has since served as acting CMO; she now becomes a senior scientific advisor. Kura’s lead drug candidate, tipifarnib, is under evaluation as a potential treatment for patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma with HRAS mutations.

Author: Sarah de Crescenzo

Sarah is Xconomy's San Diego-based editor. Prior to joining the team in 2018, she wrote about startups, tech and finance at the San Diego Business Journal. Her decade of full-time news experience includes coverage of subjects including campaign finance, crime and courts as a reporter and editor at outlets throughout California, including the Orange County Register. She earned a bachelor's degree in English Literature at UC San Diego, where she wrote for the student newspaper and played collegiate lacrosse. In 2019, she earned an MBA at UC Irvine. View all posts by Sarah de Crescenzo