ImmunityBio Appoints Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong to Global Chief Scientific and Medical Officer; Newly Created Role Will Lead Company's Scientific Strategy and Global Expansion
- Dr. Soon-Shiong's priority will be to continue to align scientific and medical goals that are focused on the delivery of cutting-edge therapeutics for patients.
- The role connects Dr. Soon-Shiong's long-time expertise, track record and innovative thinking as a clinician scientist directly with the company's talented research/discovery, clinical development, and medical teams.
- The new position is in addition to Dr. Soon-Shiong's existing role as the company's Executive Chairman of the Board.
ImmunityBio, Inc. (NASDAQ:IBRX), a clinical-stage immunotherapy company, appointed Patrick Soon-Shiong, M.D., to the newly created role of Global Chief Scientific and Medical Officer, effective as of August 11, 2021. In this additional role, Dr. Soon-Shiong will oversee the company's global research and development programs and pipeline investments in support of its ambitious growth plans, which include bringing advanced technology to a broad global marketplace.
"As both the founder of ImmunityBio and a visionary biotech innovator, Patrick's expertise has always been an invaluable asset to the organization," said Richard Adcock, President and CEO of ImmunityBio. "We are grateful for his leadership and commitment to drive the scientific agenda of our business forward. His unwavering focus on advancing potential breakthrough therapies for cancer and infectious disease has already improved the quality of life for thousands of patients."
"My entire life's work has been to discover and bring to market better treatments for cancer and other difficult-to-treat diseases, and thanks to incredible innovations over the last few years, we're closer than ever to that goal," said Dr. Soon-Shiong. "Our growing knowledge of the immune system will serve as the foundation for the research priorities we're setting at ImmunityBio. These priorities will guide our ongoing quest for life-saving and life-extending therapeutics, including a commitment to ensure they are available to people in underserved nations in Africa and elsewhere. That's my goal and the goal of everyone on our highly experienced research, clinical development, and medical teams."
About ImmunityBio
ImmunityBio is a leading late-clinical-stage immunotherapy company developing next-generation therapies that drive immunogenic mechanisms for defeating cancers and infectious diseases. The company's immunotherapy platform activates both the innate (natural killer cell and macrophage) and adaptive (T cell) immune systems to create long-term "immunological memory."
ImmunityBio has a comprehensive immunotherapy pipeline with more than 40 clinical trials (company sponsored or investigator initiated)—of which 25 are at Phase II and III stages of development—across 19 indications in solid and liquid cancers and infectious diseases. Currently 17 first-in-human immunotherapy agents are in clinical testing and, to date, over 1,800 patients have been studied with our antibody cytokine fusion proteins, albumin chemo immunomodulators, Adeno and yeast vaccines and our off-the-shelf natural killer cell products. Anktiva™ (ImmunityBio's lead cytokine infusion protein) is a novel interleukin-15 (IL-15) superagonist complex and has received Breakthrough Therapy and Fast Track Designations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for BCG-unresponsive CIS non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).
The company's platforms are based on the foundation of four separate modalities: Antibody cytokine fusion proteins, synthetic immunomodulators, second-generation human adenovirus (hAd5) and yeast vaccine technologies, and state-of-the-art, off-the-shelf natural killer cells, including autologous and allogenic cytokine-enhanced memory NK cells. ImmunityBio is currently developing a dual construct COVID-19 vaccine candidate using its hAd5 platform.
ImmunityBio is a leading producer of cryopreserved and clinical dose forms of off-the-shelf natural killer (NK) cell therapies. The company has established GMP manufacturing capacity at scale with cutting-edge cell manufacturing expertise and ready-to-scale facilities, as well as extensive and seasoned R&D, clinical trial, and regulatory operations and development teams. For more information, please visit: www.immunitybio.com
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, such as statements regarding the development of therapeutics for cancer and infectious diseases. Statements in this press release that are not statements of historical fact are considered forward-looking statements, which are usually identified by the use of words such as "anticipates," "believes," "continues", "could", "estimates," "expects," "intends," "may," "plans," "potential", "predicts", "projects," "seeks," "should," "will," and variations of such words or similar expressions. Statements of past performance, efforts, or results of our clinical trials, about which inferences or assumptions may be made, can also be forward-looking statements and are not indicative of future performance or results. Forward-looking statements are neither forecasts, promises nor guarantees, and are based on the current beliefs of ImmunityBio's management as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to ImmunityBio. Such statements reflect the current views of ImmunityBio with respect to future events and are subject to known and unknown risks, including business, regulatory, economic and competitive risks, uncertainties, contingencies and assumptions about ImmunityBio, including, without limitation, (i) the ability of ImmunityBio to continue its planned preclinical and clinical development of its development programs, and the timing and success of any such continued preclinical and clinical development and planned regulatory submissions, (ii) inability to retain and hire key personnel, (iii) uncertainty of the expected financial performance and successful integration of the combined company following completion of the recent merger of ImmunityBio with NantCell (the "Merger"), including the possibility that the expected synergies and value creation from the Merger will not be realized or will not be realized within the expected time period, (iv) whether interim, initial, "top-line" and preliminary data from ImmunityBio's clinical trials that it announces or publishes from time to time may change as more patient data become available and are subject to audit and verification procedures that could result in material changes in the final data, (v) ImmunityBio's ability to obtain additional financing to fund its operations and complete the development and commercialization of its various product candidates, (vi) ImmunityBio's ability to obtain, maintain, protect and enforce patent protection and other proprietary rights for its product candidates and technologies and (vii) the unknown future impact of the COVID-19 pandemic delay on certain clinical trials or their milestones and/or ImmunityBio's operations or operating expenses. More details about these and other risks that may impact ImmunityBio's business are described under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on March 10, 2021, Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on August 12, 2021 and in subsequent filings made by ImmunityBio with the SEC, which are available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. ImmunityBio cautions you not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. ImmunityBio does not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statement or other information in this press release, except to the extent required by law.
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