Juno Therapeutics Appoints Rupert Vessey to Board of Directors
April 19 2017 - 9:00AM
Business Wire
Juno Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: JUNO), a biopharmaceutical
company developing innovative cellular immunotherapies for the
treatment of cancer, today announced it has appointed to its Board
of Directors Dr. Rupert Vessey, President of Research and Early
Development of Celgene Corporation.
Dr. Vessey brings significant drug development capabilities to
the Juno Board. Before joining Celgene in January 2015, Dr. Vessey
was Senior Vice President of Early Development and Discovery
Sciences at Merck and had numerous roles of increasing
responsibility at GlaxoSmithKline in drug discovery, experimental
medicine, and early clinical development of therapeutics for
respiratory and immune diseases.
“Rupert has tremendous knowledge in immunology and experience in
both drug development and building an efficient, world class
research organization that will be invaluable during this phase of
growth at Juno,” said Hans Bishop, Juno’s President and CEO. “Our
collaboration with Celgene is an important component of our
business, and we are pleased to have Rupert’s extensive skills
added to our Board.”
“I believe engineered cell therapy will play an increasingly
important role in our industry’s future, and I am excited to join
Juno’s Board of Directors,” said Dr. Vessey. “Celgene and Juno
intend to lead this field and bring these potentially
transformative therapies to patients around the world. I look
forward to working with management and the rest of the Board to
advance the pipeline and achieve these goals.”
Dr. Vessey will serve as Celgene’s designated appointee to the
Juno Board. Tom Daniel, MD, joined the Juno Board of Directors in
2015 upon the closing of the Celgene / Juno collaboration agreement
as the Celgene designated appointee. Dr. Daniel has agreed to
remain on the Board as an independent director.
Dr. Vessey graduated from Oxford University with degrees in
Physiological Sciences (MA), Clinical Medicine (BM BCh), and
Molecular Immunology (DPhil). He is an elected Fellow of the Royal
College of Physicians.
ABOUT JUNO
Juno Therapeutics is building a fully integrated
biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative cellular
immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer. Founded on the vision
that the use of human cells as therapeutic entities will drive one
of the next important phases in medicine, Juno is developing
cell-based cancer immunotherapies based on chimeric antigen
receptor and high-affinity T cell receptor technologies to
genetically engineer T cells to recognize and kill cancer. Juno is
developing multiple cell-based product candidates to treat a
variety of B-cell malignancies as well as solid tumors. Several
product candidates have shown compelling clinical responses in
clinical trials in refractory leukemia and lymphoma conducted to
date. Juno's long-term aim is to leverage its cell-based platform
to develop new product candidates that address a broader range of
cancers and human diseases. Juno brings together innovative
technologies from some of the world's leading research
institutions, including the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research
Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Seattle
Children's Research Institute (SCRI), the University
of California, San Francisco, and The National
Cancer Institute. Juno Therapeutics has an exclusive
license to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital patented
technology for CD19-directed product candidates that use 4-1BB,
which was developed by Dario Campana, Chihaya Imai, and
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Juno’s product
candidate JCAR017 was developed in collaboration with SCRI and
others.
ABOUT THE JUNO-CELGENE COLLABORATION
Celgene Corporation and Juno Therapeutics formed a collaboration
in June 2015 under which the two companies will leverage T cell
therapeutic strategies to develop treatments for patients with
cancer and autoimmune diseases with an initial focus on chimeric
antigen receptor (CAR) and T cell receptor (TCR) technologies. In
April 2016, Celgene exercised its option to develop and
commercialize the Juno CD19 program outside North America and
China.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within
the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 21E of
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements regarding
Juno’s mission, progress, and business plans, and the potential of
the collaboration between Juno and Celgene. Forward-looking
statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause
actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking
statements, and reported results should not be considered as an
indication of future performance. These risks and uncertainties
include, but are not limited to, risks associated with: the
success, cost, and timing of Juno's product development activities
and clinical trials; Juno's ability to obtain regulatory approval
for and to commercialize its product candidates; Juno's ability to
establish a commercially-viable manufacturing process and
manufacturing infrastructure; regulatory requirements and
regulatory developments; success of Juno's competitors with respect
to competing treatments and technologies; Juno's dependence on
third-party collaborators and other contractors in Juno's research
and development activities, including for the conduct of clinical
trials and the manufacture of Juno's product candidates; Juno's
dependence on Celgene for the development and
commercialization outside of North
America and China of Juno’s CD19 product candidates
and any other product candidates for
which Celgene exercises an option; Juno’s dependence
on JW Therapeutics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd, over which Juno does
not exercise complete control, for the development and
commercialization of product candidates in China; Juno's
ability to obtain, maintain, or protect intellectual property
rights related to its product candidates; amongst others. For a
further description of the risks and uncertainties that could cause
actual results to differ from those expressed in these
forward-looking statements, as well as risks relating to Juno's
business in general, see Juno's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed
with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March
1, 2017 and Juno’s other periodic reports filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking
statements speak only as of the date hereof. Juno disclaims any
obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170419005749/en/
Juno Therapeutics, Inc.Investor Relations:Nicole Keith,
206-566-5521nikki.keith@junotherapeutics.comorMedia:Christopher
Williams, 206-566-5660chris.williams@junotherapeutics.com
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