SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Allogene Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of allogeneic CAR T therapies for cancer, today announced the appointment of Susie Jun, M.D., Ph.D., as Chief Development Officer. In her new role at Allogene, she will focus on creating an integrated translational research capability to accelerate clinical development of Allogene’s broad allogeneic CAR T cell portfolio.
“Susie is an exceptional physician/scientist and strategic thinker with demonstrated expertise in innovative clinical development of novel therapeutics in hematology and oncology,” said David Chang, M.D., Ph.D., President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Allogene. “As the field of engineered cell therapy expands, it is critical to identify ways to improve product characterization and predict treatment outcomes. We welcome her to our management team and look forward to her contributions as we continue to advance the development of our potentially transformational allogeneic CAR T cell therapies.”
Dr. Jun has more than 20 years of hematology and oncology clinical research experience across academia and the biopharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining Allogene, she served as Vice President, Head of Development for Abbvie-Stemcentrx Development and also led the Companion Diagnostics Center of Excellence at Abbvie. Dr. Jun has also served as Senior Director, Hem/Onc Clinical Research, at Gilead, and as Executive Medical Director, Hematology/Oncology, at Amgen where she led the development of innovative oncology programs such as XGEVA®, Nplate® and BLINCYTO®.
“Throughout my career, I have been dedicated to advancing medical science and serving cancer patients by focusing on transformational therapies that target unmet medical needs,” said Dr. Jun. “Allogene, with its pioneering science, has the potential to transform cancer treatment. I look forward to working with the Allogene team to advance the development of multiple allogeneic CAR T therapies to treat hematological malignancies and solid tumors.”
Dr. Jun received her M.D. from the University of Michigan Medical School, and her Ph.D. from The Rockefeller University. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Parkland Memorial Hospital, UT-Southwestern in Dallas, and her fellowship in medical oncology and hematology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
Allogene is advancing its allogeneic CAR T cell portfolio acquired from Pfizer, which includes rights to 16 preclinical CAR T cell therapy targets licensed from Cellectis and Servier and U.S. rights to UCART19, an allogeneic CAR T cell therapy candidate that is being developed for the treatment of CD19-expressing hematological malignancies. In partnership with Servier, UCART19 is in Phase 1 development for the treatment of relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
About Allogene Therapeutics
Allogene Therapeutics is a clinical stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T) therapies for cancer. Led by a world-class management team with significant experience in cell therapy, Allogene is developing a pipeline of “off-the-shelf” CAR T cell therapy candidates with the goal of delivering readily available cell therapy faster, more reliably and at greater scale to more patients.
Allogeneic CAR T cell therapies are engineered from cells of healthy donors which is intended to allow for creation of inventory for “off-the-shelf” use in patients. This approach is designed to eliminate the need to create personalized therapy from a patient’s own cells, simplify manufacturing, and reduce the time patients must wait for CAR T cell treatment. The Allogene portfolio includes rights to 16 pre-clinical CAR T cell therapy targets and UCART19, an allogeneic CAR T therapy candidate currently in Phase 1 development for the treatment of relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
Through its notable partnerships, Allogene leverages pioneering technology platforms, including TALEN® gene-editing technology from Cellectis, to progress its portfolio of CAR T cell therapies. Allogene, with headquarters in South San Francisco, California, is a Two River portfolio company formed with one of the largest Series A financings in biotechnology from an investment consortium that includes TPG, Vida Ventures, BellCo Capital, the University of California Office of the Chief Investment Officer, Gilead and Pfizer. For more information, please visit www.allogene.com, and follow @AllogeneTx on Twitter and LinkedIn.
XGEVA®, Nplate® and BLINCYTO® are registered trademarks of Amgen Inc.
