NEW YORK, Jan. 23, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Actinium
Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE American: ATNM) ("Actinium" or
"the Company") announced today the appointment of Cynthia Pussinen as Executive Vice President,
Technical Operations and Supply Chain. In this position, Ms.
Pussinen will serve as a member of Actinium's executive leadership
team and will be responsible for strategy and execution of
Actinium's operational and tactical plans for product development,
drug manufacturing, infrastructure, and supply chain.
Actinium is advancing the only multi-disease, multi-target,
clinical-stage pipeline for targeted conditioning to enable
cellular therapies such as BMT or Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) and
CAR-T. The target market for Actinium's ARC or Antibody
Radiation Conjugate drug candidates is concentrated within the top
75-100 hospitals in the U.S. that perform a majority of BMT and
CAR-T procedures. Further developing its technical operations
and supply chain capabilities under seasoned leadership is a
natural evolution for the Company given the progression of its
later stage pipeline, development of its AWE technology platform
for partnering and optionality available to grow further as an
independent specialty oncology company.
Ms. Pussinen brings 25 years of highly relevant technical
operations and supply chain experience from executive roles at
global biopharmaceutical organizations Pfizer and Ipsen to
Actinium. Cynthia joins Actinium from Pfizer, where she was the
Head of Strategic Portfolio Management, Worldwide Research &
Development. In this role she led efforts to maximize the value of
Pfizer's pre-Proof of Concept portfolio across 6 research units,
including driving pipeline decision making, portfolio
prioritization and clinical portfolio investment efforts across the
R&D organization. Cynthia's valuable experience include the
roles of President and General Manager of Ipsen Biosciences, Inc.
where she led the operational and strategic directions of this
subsidiary company, including maintaining an annual operating
budget of more than $100 million, and
managing two sites with more than 220 employees. As Global Head of
Supply Chain Logistics at Pfizer, she managed investigational study
drug distribution for the entire Pfizer portfolio.
Sandesh Seth, Actinium's Chairman
and CEO said, "We are pleased to expand our core leadership team
with a seasoned executive of Cynthia's caliber who has a proven
ability to execute and drive growth in areas that are highly
relevant to Actinium. I believe that Actinium's ability to attract
new members to our team with this level of experience speaks
volumes about the progress our team has made, recognition of the
opportunity in targeted conditioning and the potential of our AWE
platform. As our pipeline expands and key programs including the
SIERRA pivotal trial, the Actimab-MDS trial and Iomab-ACT for CART
progress, Cynthia's leadership capabilities, which have been proven
at global organizations, will have an invaluable impact in enabling
our Company to gear up and be well prepared to successfully unlock
the potential of these programs. Further, her immense experience in
research and development and strategy will allow her to seamlessly
integrate with our clinical and R&D teams to create value
through pipeline expansion and strategic opportunities by
leveraging our powerful AWE platform. I am excited to welcome
Cynthia to our team and look forward to working with her in
continuing to build Actinium's leadership position in targeted
conditioning and ARCs."
Ms. Pussinen is a proven leader who is known for her ability to
build, grow and lead manufacturing and supply chain teams at global
life sciences companies, while delivering bottom line results with
significant, positive business impact. Her experience spans the
drug development continuum, as she focused on transforming business
processes and organizations to maximize return. Ms. Pussinen
has spent much of her career in senior roles at Pfizer where she
oversaw different aspects of the company's supply chain, portfolio
and project leadership and research efforts. Prior to joining
Actinium, Ms. Pussinen was the Head of Strategic Portfolio
Management, Worldwide Research & Development at Pfizer. There
she led efforts for Pfizer's pre-Proof of Concept portfolio across
six research units aimed at maximizing value and enhancing R&D
productivity through pipeline decision making, portfolio
prioritization and clinical portfolio investment efforts. In
addition to her tenure at Pfizer, Ms. Pussinen held executive roles
at Ipsen, including most recently as President and General Manager
for Ipsen Biosciences, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Ipsen.
During this time, she maintained an annual operating budget of more
than $100 million and managed two
sites with more than 220 employees while leading the operational
and strategic directions of this subsidiary company. Through the
management of process sciences, manufacturing, quality, facilities
and supply chain, Cynthia led efforts to supply a novel biologic
drug while preparing for a BLA submission, pre-approval site
inspection and commercial build. In addition, she delivered a
state-of-the-art R&D facility head of schedule and on budget.
Cynthia began her career at Pfizer where she held roles of
increasing responsibility including as the Global Head of Supply
Chain Logistics, and as a Portfolio Director and Chief of Staff
within Worldwide Portfolio and Program Management. Cynthia received
a BS in Chemistry from the University of
Connecticut, Storrs, CT and earned her MS in Management of
R&D from Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute, Troy, NY.
Ms. Pussinen said, "I was drawn to Actinium based on its highly
differentiated portfolio focused on targeted conditioning, which
represents a unique opportunity that I believe is unmatched across
the biopharma industry. I look forward to drawing on my past
experiences in operations and supply chain to support Actinium's
clinical activities with the goal of establishing industry best
execution as we continue to advance the pivotal Phase 3 SIERRA
trial for Iomab-B, Iomab-ACT and Actimab-MDS programs for targeted
conditioning. Additionally, Actinium's AWE technology platform
represents an exciting vehicle for pipeline expansion and strategic
partnerships that has benefited from the renewed attention and
personnel that Actinium has dedicated to it. With my
background in R&D infrastructure development, portfolio
planning and strategy, I am incredibly excited to work with our
R&D team to drive value from this important asset.
Collectively, Actinium has integrated a robust R&D engine with
a robust supply chain that is routinely delivering drug product to
key tertiary care centers that treat a great number of patients
with high unmet needs and I believe this end to end one stop
solution will be highly attractive to potential AWE partners.
Finally, I look forward to working with new my colleagues across
the organization and playing a part in helping to bring these
potentially lifesaving technologies to patient populations that are
in such great need for more effective therapies."
About Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Actinium Pharmaceuticals Inc. is focused on improving patient
access and outcomes to cellular therapies such as bone marrow
transplant (BMT) and CAR-T with its proprietary, chemotherapy free,
targeted conditioning technology. Actinium is the only company with
a multi-disease, multi-target, drug development pipeline focused on
targeted conditioning. Its targeted conditioning technology is
enabled by ARCs or Antibody Radio-Conjugates that combine the
targeting ability of monoclonal antibodies with the cell killing
ability of radioisotopes. Actinium's pipeline of clinical-stage
targeted conditioning ARCs target the antigens CD45 and CD33 for
patients with a broad range of hematologic malignancies including
acute myeloid leukemia (AML), myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and
multiple myeloma (MM).
Iomab-B, Actinium's lead targeted conditioning product
candidate, is currently enrolling patients in the pivotal Phase 3
SIERRA trial in patients age 55 or older, with active, relapsed or
refractory AML. Iodine-131 apamistamab (Iomab-B), combines the
anti-CD45 monoclonal antibody labeled with iodine-131 for
myeloablation prior to a bone marrow transplant. CD45 is expressed
on leukemia, lymphoma and normal immune cells. Iomab-B has been
studied in over 500 patients in 10 clinical trials in numerous
hematologic diseases. Actinium's Iomab-ACT program is an expansion
of its CD45 program that is intended to be a universal, chemo-free
solution for targeted lymphodepletion prior to CAR-T. Through
targeted lymphodepletion, the Iomab-ACT program is expected to
improve CAR-T cell expansion, reduce CAR-T related toxicities and
expand patient access to CAR-T treatment and potentially other
adoptive cell therapies. Due to its lower payload dose,
lymphodepletion with the Iomab-ACT program can be accomplished
through a single outpatient infusion. Actinium intends to advance
its Iomab-ACT program with CAR-T focused collaborators from
academia and industry.
Actinium's pipeline also includes a potentially best-in-class
CD33 program with its ARC comprised of the anti-CD33 antibody
lintuzumab labeled with the alpha-particle emitter actinium-225.
Its CD33 program is currently being studied in multiple Phase 1
clinical trials for targeting conditioning, in combinations and as
a therapeutic in multiple diseases and indications including AML,
MDS and MM.
Actinium is also developing its proprietary AWE or Antibody
Warhead Enabling technology platform which utilizes radioisotopes
including iodine-131 and the highly differentiated actinium-225
coupled with antibodies to target a variety of antigens that are
expressed in hematological and solid tumor cancers. The AWE
technology enables Actinium's internal pipeline and with the
radioisotope Actinium-225 is being utilized in a collaborative
research partnership with Astellas Pharma, Inc.
Actinium's clinical programs and AWE technology
platform are covered by a portfolio of over 75 patents covering
composition of matter, formulations, methods of use and also
methods of manufacturing the radioisotope Actinium-225 in a
cyclotron.
More information is available at www.actiniumpharma.com and our Twitter feed
@ActiniumPharma, www.twitter.com/actiniumpharma.
Forward-Looking Statements for Actinium Pharmaceuticals,
Inc.
This press release may contain projections or other
"forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the
"safe-harbor" provisions of the private securities litigation
reform act of 1995 regarding future events or the future financial
performance of the Company which the Company undertakes no
obligation to update. These statements are based on management's
current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties
that may cause actual results to differ materially from the
anticipated or estimated future results, including the risks and
uncertainties associated with preliminary study results varying
from final results, estimates of potential markets for drugs under
development, clinical trials, actions by the FDA and other
governmental agencies, regulatory clearances, responses to
regulatory matters, the market demand for and acceptance of
Actinium's products and services, performance of clinical research
organizations and other risks detailed from time to time in
Actinium's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the
"SEC"), including without limitation its most recent annual report
on form 10-K, subsequent quarterly reports on Forms 10-Q and Forms
8-K, each as amended and supplemented from time to time.
Contact:
Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Steve O'Loughlin
Principal Financial Officer
soloughlin@actiniumpharma.com
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SOURCE Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.