Chimeric Therapeutics Ltd (ASX:CHM) is strengthening its quality systems with the appointment of an experienced quality assurance executive Kelly Thornburg as vice president, head of Quality.
Thornburg has been advising the company as a consultant and will now serve in a leadership role to develop Chimeric’s quality systems and oversee all quality functions.
He brings extensive cell therapy experience to Chimeric, most recently from Kite, a Gilead company, where he was the quality site head for Kite’s US commercial manufacturing facility.
“Critical experience and expertise”
Chimeric CEO Jennifer Chow said: “As we are aggressively moving forward with the development of multiple clinical programs, we require specialised resources including quality assurance.
“We are thrilled to have Kelly joining our team as his experience in cell therapy quality provides us with the critical experience and expertise we require to advance our programs to clinic.”
About Chimeric
Chimeric Therapeutics is a clinical-stage company with a focus on research related to the usage of cell therapy for the treatment of cancer.
The company is developing CAR T cell therapies for solid tumours based on scientific research conducted by the US CAR T experts at the City of Hope Cancer Centre in Los Angeles.
About Chlorotoxin CAR T
Chlorotoxin CAR T (CLTX CAR T) cell therapy has the potential to address the high unmet medical need of patients with recurrent/ progressive glioblastoma.
The therapy uniquely utilises chlorotoxin (CLTX), a peptide derived from scorpion toxin, as the tumour-targeting component of the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR).
Notanly, CLTX and CLTX CAR T cells have been shown in preclinical models to bind more broadly and specifically to GBM cells than other targeting domains like EGFR, HER-2 or IL-13.
In preclinical models, CLTX CAR T cells also demonstrated potent antitumour activity against glioblastoma while not exhibiting any off-tumour recognition of normal human cells and tissues, indicating a potentially optimal safety and efficacy profile.