Imugene Ltd (ASX:IMU) (OTCMKTS:IUGNF) non-executive director Lesley Russell has demonstrated her faith in the company with an initial purchase of shares in an on-market transaction.
On March 24 Russell acquired 500,000 shares in the company and also holds 25 million options.
She has more than 25 years of international operational and leadership experience with a number of established and emerging pharmaceutical companies across multiple therapeutic areas including oncology and haematology.
Her experience has been gained at a number of leading companies including, Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN), Eli Lilly (NASDAQ:LLY), US Bioscience/Medimmune Oncology, Cephalon Inc (NASDAQ:CEPH), Teva Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:TEVA), TetraLogic and Innocoll Holdings Plc.
This on-market purchase followed another last week by managing director and chief executive officer Leslie Chong who purchased 475,240 shares and now holds 4,387,124 shares and 77,098,765 options.
Focus of operations
In February, the company outlined its focus of operations in the short to medium term in its latest half-year report, stating that it would be directed towards the development of CF33 and PD1-Vaxx in a first in human studies as well as continued enrolment of the HER-Vaxx phase-2 study.
CF33 is a chimeric poxvirus derived through recombination among multiple strains of vaccinia virus and other species of poxvirus, making it better than a virus based on a single strain.
Preclinical data has demonstrated that CF33 is more efficacious than all parental viruses and some viruses in clinical trials.
CF33 efficiently shrank injected tumours and distant non-injected tumours in human triple-negative breast cancer, colon cancer, ovarian cancer xenograft models in mice without adverse effects.