Tocagen Inc. Appoints Asha Das, M.D., As Vice President Of Clinical Development

SAN DIEGO, June 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Tocagen Inc. today announced Asha Das, M.D., has been named vice president of clinical development and medical affairs. Prior to joining Tocagen she held positions of increasing responsibility at Genentech, including leading activities related to the approval and launch of Avastin® in recurrent glioblastoma, expansion into platinum-resistant ovarian cancer and metastatic cervical cancer as well as clinical activities related to PD-L1.  

"As we prepare to begin enrollment in Toca 5, our registrational trial investigating Toca 511 & Toca FC in patients with recurrent glioblastoma or anaplastic astrocytoma, we have further strengthened our clinical leadership team," said Jamey Skillings, M.D., chief medical officer of Tocagen. "Our clinical group now boasts three oncologists, and their perspectives, particularly Asha's insights from her work expanding Avastin into use in recurrent glioblastoma, will be extremely valuable as we transition into late-stage development. I look forward to working with Asha again, as during our time together at Genentech I was extremely impressed with her depth of expertise and knowledge of the clinical development of oncology therapeutics."

Prior to Genentech, Dr. Das was an associate director at Eisai, focused on clinical activities related to the oncology therapeutics HALAVEN® and LENVIMA. Previously, she was head of the neuro-oncology program at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. Dr. Das is certified in neurology by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and in the sub-specialty of neuro-oncology and was a clinical fellow in neuro-oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital. She completed a residency in neurology at Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Das also held academic appointments at the University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, San Francisco; and National University of Singapore. She obtained her medical degree and bachelor's degree from Cornell University.

About Tocagen Inc.

Tocagen is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pursuing the discovery, development and commercialization of gene therapy products using a broadly applicable, cancer-selective immuno-oncology platform. These products leverage retroviral replicating vectors (RRVs) that selectively infect cancer cells creating a factory of RRV in the tumor, which can then infect other cancer cells. These therapies are designed to help patients fight their cancer by locally activating their immune system selectively and broadly against multiple tumor associated antigens through a combination of mechanisms resulting in a durable, systemic benefit. A registrational trial, called Toca 5, will evaluate lead therapeutic candidate Toca 511 & Toca FC in patients with recurrent glioblastoma or anaplastic astrocytoma and begin enrolling subjects in 2015.

Tocagen has received grant support from leading brain cancer foundations, including Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure (ABC2), National Brain Tumor Society (NBTS), American Brain Tumor Association (ABTA), Musella Foundation and Voices Against Brain Cancer (VABC). For more information about Tocagen please visit www.tocagen.com or www.clinicaltrials.gov using the identifier NCT01470794NCT01156584NCT01985256, or NCT02414165.

CONTACT:  Monica May, 619-849-5383, monica@canalecomm.com

 

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SOURCE Tocagen Inc.

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