VANCOUVER, BC and PLYMOUTH, MI, Oct. 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ - ProNAi Therapeutics Inc., a private company dedicated to developing and commercializing a new class of therapies based on its proprietary DNAi® platform, today announced that it has added five seasoned executives to its senior management team.
- Dr. Angie You, Chief Business & Strategy Officer & Head of Commercial
- Wendy Chapman, Senior Vice President, Clinical Operations
- Chandra Lovejoy, Senior Vice President, Global Regulatory Affairs & Quality
- Emma McCann, Vice President, Program Management
- James Smith, Vice President, Corporate Affairs
"We are rapidly building a professional leadership team to ensure our lead oncology drug, PNT2258, has the best prospects for clinical and commercial success, while also focusing on advancing a broad oncology pipeline built upon our novel and proprietary DNAi platform," said Dr. Nick Glover, President & CEO of ProNAi Therapeutics. "These executives add deep experience in clinical trial execution, regulatory negotiation and capital markets access, and are essential to the further growth of our company. In addition, Dr. Angie You, our Chief Business & Strategy Officer and Head of Commercial has an outstanding track record in the biotech industry and will be responsible for leading the development and operationalization of our growth-oriented strategic plan, including the anticipated North American commercialization of our oncology products."
Dr. Angie You, Chief Business & Strategy Officer and Head of Commercial
Dr. You heads the newly created position of Chief Business & Strategy
Officer & Head of Commercial, and will lead the Company's strategic and
transactional business and commercial efforts. Prior to joining ProNAi,
Dr. You served as the Chief Business Officer of Aragon Pharmaceuticals,
a private oncology drug discovery and development company, where she
was responsible for finance, operations, HR and business development.
During her tenure, she helped raise $90M in two successful rounds of
financing for the company, and led the business development process
resulting in the $1B acquisition of Aragon Pharmaceuticals by Johnson &
Johnson for an upfront payment of $650M and $350M in contingent
milestones. Prior to Aragon, Angie served as Chief Business Officer at
a number of companies including Synosia Therapeutics and Ren
Pharmaceuticals. She also worked at Venrock Ventures, focused on new
company formation, and ran the BD process for Anacor Pharmaceuticals, a
Venrock portfolio company, resulting in an early Phase 2a licensing
agreement with Schering Plough providing an initial $50M upfront and up
to $575 million in milestones. After completing her undergraduate
degree in Chemistry at Harvard College, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry
from Harvard University, Angie started her biotech career at McKinsey
Consulting, focusing mainly on strategy, marketing and
innovation-focused projects with biotech clients.
Wendy Chapman, Senior Vice President, Clinical Operations
Ms. Chapman heads the newly created position of Senior Vice President,
Clinical Operations, with corporate accountability for the overall
operational deployment of clinical studies. Prior to joining ProNAi,
Wendy was the Portfolio Director at PAREXEL International where she was
the senior point of contact for all issues related to the financial and
operational execution of Phase II-IV global clinical trials for one of
PAREXEL's largest Strategic Alliance Partners. Previously, Ms. Chapman
was the Vice President of Clinical Operations at YM Biosciences Inc.,
where she was responsible for the development and management of
Clinical Operations which included Project Management, Clinical
Monitoring, Clinical Supply Management and Data Management of Phase
I-III clinical trials in myelofibrosis and various solid tumor
indications. Wendy has more than 25 years of experience in clinical
drug development at several pharmaceutical and contract research
organizations in Canada and the U.S., including Viventia Biotech, AAI
Pharma, Bayer Inc., AstraZeneca and MDS.
Chandra Lovejoy, Senior Vice President, Global Regulatory Affairs and
Head of Quality
Ms. Lovejoy heads the newly created position of Senior Vice President,
Global Regulatory Affairs and Head of Quality, with more than 15 years
of progressive experience in global regulatory affairs and drug
development in large and small companies overseeing pre-clinical
through post-marketing phases. Most recently, Chandra was the Vice
President of Global Regulatory Affairs at Endocyte, and prior to that
she held a leadership role in Regulatory Affairs at Genentech,
primarily on the Avastin program. Chandra brings experience driving
cutting-edge global regulatory strategy and leading cross-functional
team activities including new IND submissions, implementation and
conduct of global clinical trials, successful negotiations with both
FDA and European health authorities regarding complex pivotal trials,
and the submission and review of marketing applications.
Emma McCann, Vice President, Program Management
Ms. McCann heads the newly created position of Vice President, Program
Management and joins ProNAi with more than 14 years of progressive
experience in clinical research and program management. Emma was
formerly Sr. Director, Program Management at YM BioSciences Inc., where
she had a critical role within the organization focused on the
progression of the company's lead drug through a myelofibrosis clinical
development program. Following the acquisition of YM by Gilead
Sciences, Inc., her leadership of transitional activities led to a
seamless transfer of key corporate assets allowing for execution of
ongoing development plans with minimal overall timeline impact. Emma
holds a B.Sc. (Hons) in Bio-Medical Science from The University of
Guelph, Ontario.
James Smith, Vice President, Corporate Affairs
Mr. Smith heads the newly created position of Vice President, Corporate
Affairs, primarily responsible for the Company's strategic investor
relations and corporate communications activities. James was formerly
Vice President, Corporate Development at SQI Diagnostics, a public
multiplex protein assay company serving global pharmaceutical
companies. Prior to this, he was Vice President, Corporate Affairs at
YM BioSciences Inc., a public drug development company acquired by
Gilead Sciences Inc. for $510 million. During his tenure at YM, he
helped raise more than $140M in two successful rounds of financing for
the company. Prior to YM, he led the Healthcare practice at TMX
Equicom, a leading strategic investor relations consulting firm he
joined in 2001, acquired by the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2007. He
gained his initial capital markets experience as a biotechnology
analyst at a venture capital firm. He also conducted research for eight
years primarily focused on animal cell culture. He has a Bachelor's
degree in Engineering Chemistry and a Master's degree in Biochemical
Engineering from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.
About ProNAi Therapeutics
ProNAi Therapeutics is a private company dedicated to developing and
commercializing a new class of therapies based on its proprietary DNAi
platform, for patients with cancer and other diseases. ProNAi's lead
DNAi drug is PNT2258, which is specifically designed to treat cancers
that overexpress BCL2. To date, 35 patients have been treated with
PNT2258 in a Phase I and a pilot Phase II trial, with compelling
efficacy and safety results. In May 2014, ProNAi raised approximately
$60M from leading healthcare investors. For more information, please
visit www.pronai.com.
SOURCE ProNAi Therapeutics Inc.
