ImmunoCellular Therapeutics (AMEX:IMUC) late Monday named Andrew Gengos as president and chief executive, sending shares of the company higher today.
With more than 20 years in the life science industry, Gengos’ experience includes executive leadership positions in both large and emerging companies, with broad expertise.
Tuesday morning, shares were up 0.47 per cent at $2.14.
"ImmunoCellular’s board of directors and management team are confident that Andrew’s integrity, leadership qualities and breadth of experience in directing corporate strategy, forging successful partnerships and establishing alliances with the financial, business, medical and patient communities are exactly the mix of skills and attributes to advance our company to its next stages of maturation and value creation," ImmunoCellular’s founder and chief scientific officer John S. Yu, said.
"We believe that Andrew’s deep interest in advancing the field of cancer immunotherapy, and his commitment to realizing the potential of our company’s technology platform and development pipeline, will be driving forces in establishing ImmunoCellular as a premier cancer vaccine company and building shareholder value."
Gengos replaces Manish Singh, who resigned as chairman and chief executive in August.
Gengos commented: "Joining ImmunoCellular is an extraordinary opportunity to help build a leading biopharmaceutical company with the potential to transform the treatment of cancer."
"I am especially excited about the company’s lead clinical program in glioblastoma, and welcome the chance to continue to work in the field of neuroscience."
Gengos was most recently the president and CEO of Neuraltus Pharmaceuticals, where he led implementation of the company’s clinical, regulatory, fundraising and business development strategies while operating the company on a virtual business model.
Previously, he served for more than seven years with Amgen where, as Vice President, Strategy and Corporate Development, he managed Amgen's worldwide in-and-outbound business development activities, including a broad slate of acquisitions, licensing, spin-outs, divestitures, corporate venture capital investments, which included board of director positions, and alliance management.
Gengos holds an MBA from the Anderson School of Business at the University of California, Los Angeles and a BS degree in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
ImmunoCellular Therapeutics is a Los Angeles-based clinical-stage company that is developing immune-based therapies for the treatment of brain and other cancers.
Last month, the company unveiled its third-quarter earnings and said it had around $10 million of cash on hand to fund the development of its clinical programs, not taking into account the near $20 million it raised in a recent public offering.
The company's development pipeline of cancer vaccines is led by ICT-107, which is anticipated to complete a Phase IIb trial at the end of 2013.
ICT-107 is a dendritic cell-based vaccine that works by activating a patient's immune system against specific tumor-associated antigens. This is done by extracting dendritic cells from a patient, loading them with the tumour-related antigens, and re-injecting them back into the patient's body to trigger an immune response against cancer cells presenting these antigens.
Rather than simply targeting a single tumor-specific antigen, ImmunoCellular's vaccine pursues multiple different antigens found on cancer stem cells. Cancer stem cells are thought to be the originators of common tumor cells, and lead to cancer’s re-growth after chemotherapy.
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