May 1, 2017
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
SUMMIT, N.J. – Celgene bagged a big one. Robert Plenge, the head of translational medicine at Merck , will soon take on a new role at Celgene.
Plenge made the announcement in a disclaimer on his blog, plengegen.com, as well as on his Twitter page, where his bio says “soon at Celgene, ex-Merck.” On his blog post, which was an examination of a cast study of BAFF and belimumab, Plenge included about halfway into the post this comment: “Disclaimer: I am an employee of Merck, although will soon transition to a new role at Celgene.” Plenge’s informal announcement was quickly shared on Twitter by Bruce Booth of Atlas Venture and Forbes, Fierce Biotech reported this morning.
Neither Merck nor Celgene have made any announcements about Plenge’s move. Fierce Biotech noted that Plenge would be helming Celgene’s immunology R&D. In February, Celgene announced Terrie Curran as the new president of the company’s Global Inflammation & Immunology Franchise. That announcement came at the same time the company said Jackie Fouse was stepping down from her role as chief operating officer at Celgene.
Plenge’s LinkedIn page still lists his position at Merck as his most current role. Plenge joined Merck in 2013 as head of genetics and pharmacogenomics. In 2015, he took over as head of translational medicine. Before joining Merck, he “worked in academic medicine to develop skills in clinical medicine, human genetics, and discovery genomics,” he said on is LinkedIn profile page. He held roles at the Broad Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and served as an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Of his decision to move to the pharma industry from the academic world, Plenge wrote on his LinkedIn page: “In 2013, I transitioned to a career in the pharmaceutical industry to apply these skills to improve the success rate in drug development by: identifying targets based on causal human biology (including human genetics), developing robust biomarkers to measure target modulation, and testing therapeutic hypotheses safely and efficiently in humans.”
As Plenge moves to Celgene, it’s probable that he will focus much of his attention on steering Ozanimod, the company’s experimental multiple sclerosis drug, through regulatory approval. Ozanimod is a selective, sphingosine 1-phosphate 1 (S1PR1) and 5 (S1PR5) receptor modulator. The drug, if approved, is likely to take on Novartis ’ Gilenya, which is used in newly diagnosed MS patients. That drug can cause some patients to have a sudden drop-off in heart rates. Ozanimod has not shown that problem in clinical trials. If approved, Ozanimod is expected to become a blockbuster.
Other therapies in Celgene’s pipeline that Plenge will oversee development of include CC-220, an immunomodulatory, and CC-90001, an anti-fibrotic.
Plenge will also likely dive into some of the compounds acquired from Cambridge, Mass.-based Delinia in a deal earlier this year. Delinia is focused on developing targeted regulatory T-cell (Treg) therapies. Its lead program is DEL1-6, an IL-2 mutein Fc fusion protein that is engineered to preferentially upregulate Tregs.
