Biotech CEO Leadership on the Business and Science of Cell and Gene Therapy

David Chang, MD, PhD, is the President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Allogene. He previously served as Executive Vice President, Research & Development, and Chief Medical Officer of Kite, a Gilead Company. He has an industry-leading track record of innovation in the field of oncology drug development, including the development of YescartaTM (axicabtagene ciloleucel), the first CAR T therapy approved for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. From 2002 to 2014, he held senior leadership roles at Amgen, including Vice President of Global Development and Head of Hematology-Oncology. During this time, Dr Chang spearheaded personalized therapy strategies underlying the success of Vectibix® (panitumumab). He also provided therapeutic area leadership to pivotal programs for Blincyto® (blinatumomab), a bispecific T cell engager antibody in acute lymphocytic leukemia and for IMLYGICTM (talimogene laherparepvec), a first-of-its-kind oncolytic immunotherapy in melanoma. Prior to joining Amgen, Dr Chang held dual appointments as Associate Professor of Medicine and of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. He obtained a BS in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and MD and PhD degrees from Stanford University. Dr Chang completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a fellowship in medical oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School, where he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute postdoctoral fellow.

Ken Drazan MD is co-founder and CEO of ArsenalBio. Immediately prior to Arsenal, Dr Drazan held the position of President of GRAIL where he was responsible for capitalization (1.5B), corporate development, regulatory, finance, legal, and clinical programs. Prior to GRAIL, Dr Drazan founded and was a Board Director of Verb Surgical, a joint venture between Google and Johnson & Johnson in surgical robotics where $700M in capital has been injected into the partnership. Dr Drazan also co-founded private equity firm Bertram Capital with $1.4B AUM. Dr Drazan is a Board certified liver transplant surgeon with previous faculty appointments at Stanford and UCLA.

Maria Fardis, PhD, has extensive experience in drug development and novel cancer treatments. While at Iovance, the lifileucel (TIL for melanoma) has been transformed to a product which is in late stage development toward commercialization for metastatic melanoma. Prior to joining Iovance Biotherapeutics, Dr Fardis was chief operating officer at Acerta Pharma working on the development of CALQUENCE® (acalabrutinib), until the company’s acquisition by AstraZeneca. Before joining Acerta, Dr Fardis held the position of chief of oncology operations and alliances at Pharmacyclics where she oversaw development of IMBRUVICA® (ibrutinib). She was a key contributor in the creation of a broad clinical program for ibrutinib, as well as NDA and MAA submissions. Previously, Dr Fardis held a number of key scientific and management roles at Gilead Sciences. At Gilead, she was involved with multiple therapeutic areas including antivirals, oncology, and cardiovascular therapeutics and worked on the development and life cycle management of LETAIRIS® (ambrisentan). She received her PhD in organic chemistry from UC Berkeley and holds an MBA.

Fred Hassan is a Director at the private equity firm, Warburg Pincus. He is also a Board member of Amgen and Precigen.  He is also the Chairman of Caret Group.Fred Hassan is the former Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Schering-Plough Corporation. Prior to joining Schering-Plough in April 2003, Hassan was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pharmacia Corporation – a company that was formed in March 2000 as a result of the merger of Monsanto and Pharmacia and Upjohn. Hassan joined Pharmacia & Upjohn as Chief Executive Officer in 1997. Previously, Hassan was Executive Vice President of Wyeth, with responsibility for its pharmaceutical and medical products business. He was elected to Wyeth’s Board of Directors in 1995. Earlier in his career, Hassan spent 17 years with Sandoz Pharmaceuticals (now Novartis) and headed its U.S. pharmaceuticals business. Hassan received a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from the Imperial College of Science and Technology at the University of London and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Hassan has chaired significant pharmaceutical industry organizations including The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations (IFPMA). Mr. Hassan is also a member of The Business Council. Fred Hassan’s book, “Reinvent –  A Leader’s Playbook for Serial Success” was published in February 2013 by Wiley and has been discussed in many global organizations including the World Bank. In 2014 he was selected by a CNBC panel to be among the 200 people who have had the greatest influence on business in the past quarter century.

Vijay Reddy, MD has significant experience in cancer research including immuno-oncology, having started his career as a medical oncologist at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr Reddy also has significant experience in oncology drug development: he developed the CAR-T cell clinical program with first-in-class targets in his most recent role with Autolus Ltd., and played a critical role bringing new therapies to market at Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies and GlaxoSmithKline. His prior work in cellular engineering and tumor biology – specifically in solid tumors – will support Tmunity’s strategy of investigating multiple modalities for unique, targeted antigens to speed time to the clinic for people currently out of time and options because of their cancer diagnosis. Dr Reddy has published numerous oncology papers, and holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from Sri Venkateshwara Medical College, and a Doctorate of Medicine in biochemistry from All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

Since the 1970s, Prof Dr Dolores Schendel has been researching T cells and their abilities in immunotherapy and has accompanied the scientific and therapeutic turn of era in this field. Prof Schendel served as a University Professor for Immunology at the Ludwig-Maximilian-University, is the author of more than 200 scientific publications, has spent several decades as a scientific review board member in various research organizations such as the German Research Foundation, German Cancer Aid and the European Research Council among others. She is a recipient of the German Federal Order of Merit and the Bavarian Order of Merit and received the ‘Deutsche Krebshilfe Preis’, the award of the German Cancer Aid. From 1998 – 2013, Prof Schendel was Director of the Institute of Molecular Immunology of the German Research Center for Environmental Health at the Helmholtz Center in Munich. Following this, she founded the Trianta Immunotherapies GmbH (today “Medigene Immunotherapies GmbH). With the acquisition by Medigene in 2014, Dolores Schendel became Chief Scientific Officer and, in 2016, also the CEO of the company.Prof Schendel completed her PhD in Genetics at the University of Wisconsin, USA, followed by post-doctoral training in immunology at University College London, UK. She developed her interest in tumor immunology while working at the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research in New York.

With more than 30 years of global biopharmaceutical leadership experience, Pascal Touchon joined Atara Biotherapeutics as President, Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors in June 2019. Dr Touchon has committed his career to transforming the lives of patients with serious medical conditions through pioneering science, teamwork, and a commitment to excellence.Previously Global Head, Cell & Gene and member of the Oncology Executive Committee at Novartis Oncology, he oversaw the Oncology Cell & Gene unit and had responsibility for the unit’s financial performance and its activities, including the global launch of KYMRIAH® (tisagenlecleucel), securing regulatory approval and reimbursement in major markets, expanding global CAR T manufacturing and technical operations, overseeing multiple new clinical studies, and building a strong leadership team.Prior to that, he served as Global Head, Strategy, Business Development, Oncology at Novartis, where he was responsible for early commercial strategy, portfolio management, therapeutic integrity and established medicines, disruptive technologies, diagnostics, business development and external collaborations, and served as a member of the Oncology Executive Committee. Dr Touchon has also held key leadership roles in research, marketing, general management, and business development at companies including Servier, Glaxo-Wellcome and Glaxo, Sanofi. He has also been a board member of Genoptix and Navigate Biopharma Services (Novartis companies) and Cogen Therapeutics (a Flagship Pioneering company).Dr Touchon holds a doctorate in veterinary medicine from Paul Sabatier University (Toulouse, France), a Diplôme d’Etudes Superieures Specialisees (DESS) in management from Institut d’Administration des Entreprises (Toulouse, France) and an MBA from INSEAD (Fontainebleau, France).Beyond his passion for science and business, Dr Touchon enjoys traveling with his family around the world, wine tasting with friends, watching rugby, and reading.