Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:CYCC, Nasdaq:CYCCP)
("Cyclacel" or the "Company"), a biopharmaceutical company
developing innovative medicines based on cancer cell biology,
announced the appointment of Mark Kirschbaum, M.D. as Senior Vice
President & Chief Medical Officer (CMO). Dr. Kirschbaum is a
highly experienced hematologist/oncologist with over 30 years of
experience in molecular medicine, new drug development, clinical
trial design and patient care. He has management experience in both
academic research and clinical and pharmaceutical settings. As CMO,
he will be responsible for advancing Cyclacel’s pipeline and will
lead clinical strategy, patient safety, and medical affairs.
“We are delighted to welcome Mark to the Cyclacel team,” said
Spiro Rombotis, Cyclacel’s President & Chief Executive Officer.
“Recent data with fadraciclib, our CDK2/9 inhibitor, and CYC140,
our PLK1 inhibitor, support further clinical development of these
agents in both liquid and solid cancers. Mark’s extensive
hematology and oncology experience in clinical practice,
experimental therapeutics and industry drug development will be
essential as we advance these and our other clinical development
programs with the aim of helping patients with unmet medical
needs.”
“Cyclacel’s biomarker-driven approach to drug development has
produced a growing and diversified clinical pipeline with the
potential to target a broad range of malignancies,” said Dr.
Kirschbaum. “I am excited to join the Cyclacel team at this point
in its evolution to help build an innovative pipeline addressing
the rising problem of cancer resistance and to achieve our clinical
milestones.”
Dr. Kirschbaum will report to Spiro Rombotis, President and
Chief Executive Officer. He will be based in the Company’s Berkeley
Heights, NJ office.
Most recently, Dr. Kirschbaum served as Vice President,
Hematology/ Oncology at ArQule Inc., (recently acquired by Merck
& Co.) where he managed the development of their BTK inhibitor
ARQ531 for hematological indications, including CLL. Prior to
ArQule, he was Senior Medical Director with global clinical
development responsibilities at Daiichi-Sankyo, Taiho
Pharmaceuticals and BeiGene, USA, where he led the clinical
development of novel compounds including inhibitors of EZH2/1,
HSP-90, HER2/3 and BTK in various solid tumors and hematological
malignancies.
Before working in the biopharmaceutical industry, Dr. Kirschbaum
served as Professor of Medicine, Director of Experimental
Therapeutics, Hematology at the Monter Cancer Center/NSLIJHS;
Professor of Medicine, Director Hematologic Malignancies at Penn
State, Hershey Cancer Center, Director of Experimental
Therapeutics, Nevada Cancer Institute, and Director, New Drug
Development at the City of Hope National Cancer Center, and
Attending Senior Physician, Department of Hematology and Department
of Bone Marrow Transplantation, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center,
Tel Aviv, Israel.
He has earned a B.A. from Yeshiva University in New York and his
M.D. from SUNY–Health Sciences Center in Brooklyn. He did his
Residency in Internal Medicine at Kings County Hospital Center in
New York. He also held a Research Fellowship in Oncology at Fred
Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and worked as a
physician scientist at Hadassah University Hospital and the
Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.
Cyclacel also announced that the Compensation Committee of
its Board of Directors authorized the grant to Dr. Kirschbaum of
non-qualified stock options to purchase up to 120,000 shares of the
Company’s common stock, effective as of the first day of his
employment as an inducement to Dr. Kirschbaum to commence
employment with Cyclacel. The award was granted under
Cyclacel’s 2020 Inducement Equity Incentive Plan which Cyclacel’s
Board of Directors adopted to facilitate the granting of equity
awards to new employees in accordance with NASDAQ Listing Rule
5635(c)(4).
The inducement grant is exercisable at a price
of $3.77 per share, which is the closing price per share
of Cyclacel’s common stock as reported by NASDAQ on October
23, 2020. The stock option shall vest over three years, with one
third of the award vesting on October 23, 2021, and the
remainder vesting ratably at the end of each subsequent month
thereafter, subject to Dr. Kirschbaum’s continued employment with
Cyclacel through each applicable vesting date. The option has a
ten-year term and is subject to the terms and conditions of a stock
option agreement.
About Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals, Inc.Cyclacel
Pharmaceuticals is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company
developing innovative cancer medicines based on cell cycle,
transcriptional regulation, and DNA damage response biology. The
transcriptional regulation program is evaluating fadraciclib as a
single agent in solid tumors and in combination with venetoclax in
patients with relapsed or refractory AML/MDS and CLL. The
anti-mitotic program is evaluating CYC140, a PLK1 inhibitor, in
advanced leukemias/MDS patients. The DNA damage response
program is evaluating an oral combination of sapacitabine and
venetoclax in patients with relapsed or refractory AML/MDS. An
investigator-sponsored trial (IST) is evaluating an oral
combination of sapacitabine and olaparib in patients with BRCA
mutant breast cancer. Cyclacel's strategy is to build a
diversified biopharmaceutical business focused in hematology and
oncology based on a pipeline of novel drug candidates. For
additional information, please visit www.cyclacel.com
Forward-looking Statements
This news release contains certain forward-looking statements
that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to be materially different from historical results or from
any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking
statements. Such forward-looking statements include statements
regarding, among other things, the efficacy, safety and intended
utilization of Cyclacel's product candidates, the conduct and
results of future clinical trials, plans regarding regulatory
filings, future research and clinical trials and plans regarding
partnering activities. Factors that may cause actual results to
differ materially include the risk that product candidates that
appeared promising in early research and clinical trials do not
demonstrate safety and/or efficacy in larger-scale or later
clinical trials, trials may have difficulty enrolling, Cyclacel may
not obtain approval to market its product candidates, the risks
associated with reliance on outside financing to meet capital
requirements, and the risks associated with reliance on
collaborative partners for further clinical trials, development and
commercialization of product candidates. You are urged to consider
statements that include the words "may," "will," "would," "could,"
"should," "believes," "estimates," "projects," "potential,"
"expects," "plans," "anticipates," "intends," "continues,"
"forecast," "designed," "goal," or the negative of those words or
other comparable words to be uncertain and forward-looking. For a
further list and description of the risks and uncertainties the
Company faces, please refer to our most recent Annual Report on
Form 10-K and other periodic and other filings we file with the
Securities and Exchange Commission and are available at
www.sec.gov. Such forward-looking statements are current only as of
the date they are made, and we assume no obligation to update any
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise.
ContactsCompany:
Paul McBarron, (908)
517-7330, pmcbarron@cyclacel.comInvestor Relations:
Russo Partners LLC, Eric Ando, (646)
218-4604, eric.ando@russopartnersllc.com
© Copyright 2020 Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. All Rights
Reserved. The Cyclacel logo and Cyclacel® are trademarks of
Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
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