Tocagen Inc. Expands Clinical Development Team
SAN DIEGO, Aug. 26, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Tocagen Inc. today announced Wayne Saville, M.D., has been named vice president, clinical development, and Mary Rose Keller has been named vice president, clinical operations.
"As we advance Toca 511 & Toca FC into late-stage registration studies, we are expanding our clinical team with individuals who have deep experience in drug development, regulatory approval, launch and commercialization activities," said Jamey Skillings, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Tocagen. "Wayne and Mary Rose bring decades of valuable expertise in clinical development and medical affairs at a pivotal time for Tocagen."
Dr. Saville has more than a decade of experience in clinical development and medical affairs for cancer products. Prior to joining Tocagen, he headed medical affairs at Genoptix, an oncology diagnostics laboratory acquired by Novartis. Previous to that position he was a director of clinical research at Amgen, where he led late-stage development of a cancer drug as well as medical affairs for Prolia. Prior to this role, Dr. Saville was the director of oncology clinical research at Biogen Idec, leading clinical and medical affairs programs for Zevalin® and Rituxan®. Previous to this position, he was an associate professor at the University of California, San Diego, and trained in internal medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical Center. He was a medical oncology fellow at the National Cancer Institute and obtained his medical degree and bachelor's degree in medicine at Northwestern University.
Ms. Keller has more than two decades of experience in drug development and clinical operations, and has worked with numerous research-focused organizations while at University of California, San Francisco's Cancer Research Institute, including the Brain Tumor Research Group, Children's Cancer Study Group and Radiation Therapy Oncology Group. Previously she was the vice president of clinical development and operations at a number of pharmaceutical companies including Prometheus Laboratories and Shire. Prior, she was the senior director of clinical operations at Agouron, leading activities for Viracept®. She subsequently led Agouron's oncology and ophthalmology programs through mergers with Warner-Lambert and Pfizer, ultimately becoming Pfizer's worldwide head development operations, global team leads and clinical trial recruitment services. Ms. Keller also previously worked at New Drug Services, where she participated in eight New Drug Applications. Ms. Keller obtained her bachelor's degree at the University of California, Davis.
About Tocagen Inc.
Tocagen Inc. is a privately funded, clinical stage biopharmaceutical company pursuing the discovery, development and commercialization of gene therapy products for the selective treatment of cancer. Tocagen is initially focusing on treatments for patients with advanced cancer for whom no adequate treatments currently exist. Toca 511 & Toca FC, the company's lead investigational combination product, is being evaluated in three clinical trials in patients with recurrent high grade glioma, including glioblastoma (GBM). 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 or Toca 511 please visit www.tocagen.com or www.clinicaltrials.gov using the identifier NCT01470794, NCT01156584 or NCT01985256.
SOURCE Tocagen Inc.