Imugene Limited (ASX:IMU) has appointed Leslie Chong as its chief operating officer with effect from mid-September.
She was most recently a senior clinical program leader at San Francisco-based Genentech, Inc, a global leader in immuno-oncology and developer of Herceptin before it was acquired by Roche in 2009 for US$46.8 billion.
Paul Hopper, executive chairman, commented:
“We are delighted that someone of Leslie’s calibre, deep immuno-oncology experience, industry networks, and from one of the world’s most successful and prestigious drug developers, has agreed to join our team.
“IMU is at an important stage of its clinical development and Leslie’s deep, hands-on clinical trial experience across many studies will be invaluable to us.”
Separately, managing director Charles Walker will step down from his position and continue as a non-executive director of the company.
In July, the company selected global contract research organisation (CRO) Simbec-Orion to conduct the upcoming HER-Vaxx gastric cancer human clinical trial.
The Phase 1b/2 clinical study is on track to begin in the second half of 2015. Simbec-Orion will plan and manage the clinical trials with its initial task being to identify optimal international clinical trial sites.
It will also identify investigators experienced in immuno-oncology to participate in the clinical investigation of Imugene’s proprietary immunotherapy HER-Vaxx.
In previous empirical work on breast cancer, pre-clinical data showed that HER-Vaxx had improved growth inhibition on the human breast cancer cell line SKBR-3 compared with Roche’s Herceptin drug, which also targets the HER-2/neu oncogene.
It also demonstrated identical inhibition at one third dose compared with Herceptin though clinical trials are required to confirm this.
Imugene had $1.96 million in cash as at 30th June 2015.
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