Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. Announces Senior Leadership Promotions

HAMPTON, N.J., July 30, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq:CLDX) today announced three promotions in the Company's clinical and research departments:

• Tibor Keler, PhD promoted to Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer;
• Thomas Davis, MD promoted to Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer; and
• Elizabeth Crowley promoted to Senior Vice President, Product Development.

"We continue to build an exceptional team of senior leaders at Celldex who are committed to advancing our pipeline and improving the lives of patients facing cancer," said Anthony Marucci, President and Chief Executive Officer of Celldex. "These promotions are a direct reflection of the critical roles Tibor, Tom and Beth have played over the years in executing on these goals. As co-founder of Celldex, Tibor has led the scientific and technological development that now underpins an extraordinary pipeline of targeted therapeutics and future preclinical candidates. Tom, who joined Celldex soon after we started the Company, has been integral in leading the clinical development of our programs, with five candidates in clinical studies, including two in potential registration studies. Beth, who joined us in 2009, is responsible for the execution of our development programs, expertly overseeing the coordination and successful completion of the programs, including more than 30 company- and investigator-sponsored clinical trials. The combined experience and expertise of these three leaders has and will continue to be very important to our success as we move toward commercialization."

Tibor Keler, PhD has been promoted to Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Celldex. Dr. Keler is a founder of Celldex and most recently served as the Company's Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer. Prior to that, Dr. Keler was Senior Director of Preclinical Development and Principal Scientist at Medarex from September 1993 to March 2004. While at Medarex, he was responsible for the preclinical development of a number of Medarex clinical product candidates, including ipilimumab. In addition, Dr. Keler was responsible for the development of Celldex's core technology and related products. Dr. Keler received his BS in Unified Science and MS in Biology from Drexel University, and PhD in Microbiology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Tom Davis, MD has been promoted to Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Celldex. Most recently Dr. Davis served as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. Prior to that, he was Chief Medical Officer at GenVec and Senior Director of Clinical Science at Medarex, where he led the clinical development of ipilimumab. He has supervised clinical efforts in adult hematologic malignancies and marrow transplantation and therapeutic antibodies and vaccines at the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and worked with Dr. Ron Levy on the development of rituximab and idiotype vaccines at Stanford University. Dr. Davis received his BA in Biophysics from Johns Hopkins, MS in Physiology and MD from Georgetown University, and Oncology training at Stanford University.

Elizabeth Crowley has been promoted to Senior Vice President, Product Development of Celldex. Ms. Crowley joined Celldex in 2009 as Vice President, Clinical Development. Prior to that, she held several senior level roles at CuraGen Corporation, most recently serving as the Vice President of Development Operations, responsible for strategic and operational development activities of the oncology and oncology supportive care portfolio, regulatory affairs, clinical operations and data management. Ms. Crowley started her career at Bayer Corporation in 1992, holding various positions providing leadership of clinical research and project management prior to completing her tenure there as the Director of Global Study Audit Management, assuring the highest standards for program execution. Ms. Crowley received her BS in Chemistry with a concentration in Business from Boston College.

About Celldex Therapeutics, Inc.

Celldex is developing targeted therapeutics to address devastating diseases for which available treatments are inadequate. Our pipeline is built from a proprietary portfolio of antibodies and immunomodulators used alone and in strategic combinations to create novel, disease-specific therapies that induce, enhance or suppress the body's immune response. Visit www.celldex.com.

Forward Looking Statement

This release contains "forward-looking statements" made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including those related to the Company's strategic focus and the future development and commercialization (by Celldex and others) of rindopepimut ("rindo"; CDX-110), glembatumumab vedotin ("glemba"; CDX-011), varlilumab ("varli"; CDX-1127), CDX-1401, CDX-301 and other products and our goals for 2014. Forward-looking statements reflect management's current knowledge, assumptions, judgment and expectations regarding future performance or events. Although management believes that the expectations reflected in such statements are reasonable, they give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct and you should be aware that actual results could differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, our ability to successfully complete research and further development and commercialization of rindopepimut, glembatumumab vedotin and other drug candidates; our ability to obtain additional capital to meet our long-term liquidity needs on acceptable terms, or at all, including the additional capital which will be necessary to complete the clinical trials that we have initiated or plan to initiate; the uncertainties inherent in clinical testing and accruing patients for clinical trials; our limited experience in bringing programs through Phase 3 clinical trials; our ability to manage and successfully complete multiple clinical trials and the research and development efforts for our multiple products at varying stages of development; the availability, cost, delivery and quality of clinical and commercial grade materials produced by our own manufacturing facility or supplied by contract manufacturers, who may be our sole source of supply; the timing, cost and uncertainty of obtaining regulatory approvals; the failure of the market for the Company's programs to continue to develop; our ability to protect the Company's intellectual property; the loss of any executive officers or key personnel or consultants; competition; changes in the regulatory landscape or the imposition of regulations that affect the Company's products; and other factors listed under "Risk Factors" in our annual report on Form 10-K.

All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary notice. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. We have no obligation, and expressly disclaim any obligation, to update, revise or correct any of the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

CONTACT: Company Contact: Sarah Cavanaugh Vice President of Investor Relations & Corp Communications Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (781) 433-3161 scavanaugh@celldex.com Media Inquiries: Dan Budwick Pure Communications, Inc. (973) 271-6085 dan@purecommunicationsinc.com

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