Vaccitech Appoints Chief Medical Officer to Oversee Development of Growing Clinical Pipeline of T Cell-Inducing Viral Vector Vaccines
Oxford, UK – 15 Jul 2019– FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Vaccitech Limited, a clinical-stage T cell immunotherapy company developing viral vectors as vaccines to treat and prevent Cancer and Infectious Diseases, announces today that it has appointed Mariem Charafeddine as Chief Medical Officer.
Mariem brings over 15 years’ experience in the Biopharmaceutical Industry, spent both advancing the clinical development and commercialisation of Infectious Disease products, and in delivering post-marketing monitoring of licensed medical products. Mariem has previously worked in international medical leadership roles and drug development in Infectious Diseases. She joins Vaccitech after 6 years at Abbvie, where she most recently served as Medical Director for Pharmacovigilance and Patient Safety Sciences, Infectious Diseases and Neurosciences. Mariem’s prior roles include Global Clinical Development at AbbVie and Hoffmann-La Roche/Genentech, as well as Medical Manager at Hoffmann-La-Roche in France. She is a qualified physician, with clinical practice and research experience focused in Infectious Diseases and Hepatology. Mariem also holds a Master’s degree in Marketing Management, gained from ESCP Europe.
Mariem will oversee the development of Vaccitech’s growing clinical-stage pipeline and will help implement the global clinical development strategy and medical plans across Vaccitech's therapeutic and prophylactic vaccine products.
"We are delighted to have Mariem join our team as we advance towards the Phase 2b read-outs of our lead clinical program in influenza,” said Tom Evans, Vaccitech CEO. “Her wide-ranging clinical development and post-marketing expertise in infectious diseases also puts us in great stead ahead of first in human studies for our HPV and HBV therapeutics. We look forward to her input on how best to develop our vaccines for the patients that need them.”
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Notes to editors:
About Vaccitech Ltd.
Vaccitech is a clinical stage T cell immunotherapy company developing non-replicating viral vectors as vaccines to treat and prevent Cancer and Infectious diseases. The company’s proprietary technology platform, comprising Chimp Adenovirus (prime) and MVA (boost), induces, boosts and maintains CD8+ and CD4+ T cells to levels that are to date unsurpassed by other technologies. The Vaccitech prime-boost platform is licenced from one of the most prestigious vaccine research institutes in the world, the Jenner Institute at University of Oxford. Vaccitech currently has a Phase 2b clinical programme for influenza and is poised to enter the clinic with HBV and HPV therapeutics. Vaccitech is also progressing other products funded by partners, including a Phase 2a study in prostate cancer and Phase 1 for MERS. The company is backed by leading institutions including Google Ventures, Sequoia China and Oxford Science Innovation.
For further details, please contact:
Vaccitech
Pippa Rathbone
Direct: +44 (0) 1865 807 320
Email: pippa.rathbone@vaccitech.co.uk
Katja Stout, Scius Communications
Direct: +44 (0) 7789435990