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 David M. Tillett, Ph.D., as Senior Vice President, Head of Quality. In this role, Dr. Tillett will further build Allogene’s Quality system and oversee all Quality functions.
“I’ve had the privilege of working with Dave extensively and am thrilled to have him officially join Allogene,” said Alison Moore, Ph.D., Chief Technical Officer of Allogene. “Dave is a proven technical leader with vast experience in overseeing quality and CMC operations. As we continue to progress our allogeneic CAR T cell portfolio, this deep understanding will allow us to advance the CMC product quality and compliance framework to help bring our engineered cell therapies to patients.”
Dr. Tillett has over 25 years of experience in the production of biological drug products, with expertise in process development, manufacturing, and quality. Dr. Tillett previously served as President of Berea Consulting, providing technical operations support to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Tillett has also served in multiple senior roles within Amgen, including Vice President of Worldwide Quality. Prior to Amgen, he served in both manufacturing and process development roles at Synergen and was a founder and Vice-President of Sea Ag, a marine biotechnology company.
“My experience in cell therapy over the last three years, along with my time at Allogene as a consultant, has only reinforced my belief that allogeneic CAR T therapy has the potential to be the next step-change in how people with cancer may be treated,” said Dr. Tillett. “I look forward to building and overseeing the quality function and being a part of this exciting time at Allogene.”
Dr. Tillett received a B.S.Ch.E. in chemical engineering from the University of Delaware, and an M.S.Ch.E. and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
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.
