PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa.,
Nov. 5, 2021 /PRNewswire/
-- INOVIO (NASDAQ: INO), a biotechnology company focused on
bringing to market precisely designed DNA medicines to treat and
protect people from infectious diseases, cancer, and HPV-associated
diseases, today announced the strategic appointments of new leaders
designed to position INOVIO for growth and upcoming commercial
operations. Effective immediately, four experienced and talented
leaders will all join the executive team and report to INOVIO's
President and CEO, Dr. J. Joseph
Kim.
Dr. Kim said, "These leaders, all with global experience, bring
world-class talent to our executive management team as we move
towards commercial operations. Their contributions and leadership
will help the company deliver on its mission to rapidly bring to
market innovative, life-saving DNA medicines."
Mark Twyman is appointed to the
newly created Chief Commercial Officer role. Mark joined INOVIO in
2017 to drive the company's global commercialization efforts. Prior
to joining INOVIO, Mark held various VP and SVP level commercial
roles with Novavax, Sanofi-Genzyme, GI Dynamics, LENSAR, MedImmune,
and Merck; as well as senior advisory roles to pharmaceutical and
biotech organizations. He played a leadership role in
commercializing multiple global brands including: Recombivax
HB® Ped/Adol, Gardisil®, Varivax®,
ProQuad®, Synvisc-One®, and LENSAR-AR®. Mark
brings over 30 years of senior commercial leadership experience to
this newly created role. Mark holds an MBA in Finance from the
Wharton School of the University of
Pennsylvania, and a BA in Economics from Dickinson College.
Rob Crotty joins INOVIO as its
new General Counsel. Rob brings more than 15 years' experience in
the life sciences industry. Prior to joining INOVIO, Rob held legal
positions of increasing responsibilities at ImClone Systems
Incorporated, NPS Pharmaceuticals, Dendron Corporation, Vernalis
Therapeutics, and most recently, Nabriva Therapeutics where he
served as General Counsel & Secretary. Before going in-house,
Rob was an associate at the global law firm of Morgan, Lewis
& Bockius LLP, where his practice was focused on business and
finance. Rob holds a JD from the University of
Pennsylvania Law School and a BA from Princeton University. He is admitted to practice
law in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
Asli Gevgilili is appointed as INOVIO's Chief Human Resources
Officer. She will be responsible for the strategy, planning, and
implementation of all human resource-related functions. Asli joins
INOVIO from Allergan (acquired by AbbVie), where she spent nearly
10 years in HR leadership roles of increasing responsibility; prior
to Allergan, she spent eight years at Merck and Schering Plough,
where she held HR Business Partner roles supporting different
business functions. She holds a master's degree in Industrial and
Organizational Psychology from New York
University and has completed graduate work at Baruch College towards her Ph.D. in Industrial and
Organizational Psychology. She earned her BA in Psychology from
Boğaziçi University in Istanbul.
Gene Kim is appointed to the
newly created position of Chief Corporate Affairs Officer and will
continue in his role as President of INOVIO Asia. Gene joined
INOVIO as the President of INOVIO Asia in 2020. In his new role,
Gene will oversee all communications functions for INOVIO,
including investor and public relations. Gene brings more than 20
years of experience in finance and corporate strategy. Prior to
joining INOVIO, in his last three roles as CFO of public and
private companies in Korea, Gene had strong investor relations
experiences where he built high-performing investor relations
teams, improved company presence among investors and increased
analyst coverage by securities firms. Gene holds an MBA from the
Wharton School of the University of
Pennsylvania and a BS in Chemical Engineering from the
University of California, Los
Angeles.
About INOVIO
INOVIO is a biotechnology company focused on rapidly bringing to
market precisely designed DNA medicines to treat and protect people
from infectious diseases, cancer, and diseases associated with HPV.
INOVIO is the first company to have clinically demonstrated that a
DNA medicine can be delivered directly into cells in the body via a
proprietary smart device to produce a robust and tolerable immune
response. Specifically, INOVIO's lead therapeutic candidate
VGX-3100 met primary and secondary endpoints for all evaluable
subjects in REVEAL 1, the first of two, Phase 3 trials for
precancerous cervical dysplasia, demonstrating ability to destroy
and clear both high-grade cervical lesions and the underlying
high-risk HPV-16/18. INOVIO is also evaluating INO-4800, a DNA
vaccine candidate against COVID-19, in a Phase 2/3 clinical trial;
the Phase 3 segment of which has received regulatory approvals to
begin in Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Philippines, and India. INOVIO's partners, Advaccine
Biopharmaceuticals and International Vaccine Institute, are also
evaluating INO-4800 in ongoing clinical trials in China and South
Korea, respectively.
Partners and collaborators include Advaccine, ApolloBio
Corporation, AstraZeneca, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency/Joint Program Executive Office for
Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense/Department
of Defense, HIV Vaccines Trial Network, International Vaccine
Institute, Kaneka Eurogentec, Medical CBRN Defense Consortium,
National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Ology Bioservices,
the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Plumbline Life
Sciences, Regeneron, Richter-Helm BioLogics, Thermo Fisher
Scientific, University of Pennsylvania,
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, and The Wistar Institute.
For more information, visit www.inovio.com.
CONTACTS:
Media: Jeff
Richardson, 267-440-4211, jrichardson@inovio.com
Investors: Ben Matone, 484-362-0076,
ben.matone@inovio.com
This press release contains certain forward-looking
statements relating to our business, including our plans to develop
and commercialize DNA medicines, our expectations regarding our
research and development programs, including the planned initiation
and conduct of pre-clinical studies and clinical trials and the
availability and timing of data from those studies and trials, our
ability to successfully manufacture and produce large quantities of
our product candidates if they receive regulatory approval and
planned collaborations with third parties. Actual events or results
may differ from the expectations set forth herein as a result of a
number of factors, including uncertainties inherent in pre-clinical
studies, clinical trials, product development programs and
commercialization activities and outcomes, our ability to secure
sufficient manufacturing capacity to mass produce our product
candidates, the availability of funding to support continuing
research and studies in an effort to prove safety and efficacy of
electroporation technology as a delivery mechanism or develop
viable DNA medicines, our ability to support our pipeline of DNA
medicine products, the ability of our collaborators to attain
development and commercial milestones for products we license and
product sales that will enable us to receive future payments and
royalties, the adequacy of our capital resources, the availability
or potential availability of alternative therapies or treatments
for the conditions targeted by us or collaborators, including
alternatives that may be more efficacious or cost effective than
any therapy or treatment that we and our collaborators hope to
develop, issues involving product liability, issues involving
patents and whether they or licenses to them will provide us with
meaningful protection from others using the covered technologies,
whether such proprietary rights are enforceable or defensible or
infringe or allegedly infringe on rights of others or can withstand
claims of invalidity and whether we can finance or devote other
significant resources that may be necessary to prosecute, protect
or defend them, the level of corporate expenditures, assessments of
our technology by potential corporate or other partners or
collaborators, capital market conditions, the impact of government
healthcare proposals and other factors set forth in our Annual
Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 , our Quarterly Report on Form
10-Q for the quarter ended September 30,
2021 and other filings we make from time to time with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. There can be no assurance that
any product candidate in our pipeline will be successfully
developed, manufactured, or commercialized, that results of
clinical trials will be supportive of regulatory approvals required
to market products, or that any of the forward-looking information
provided herein will be proven accurate. Forward-looking statements
speak only as of the date of this release, and we undertake no
obligation to update or revise these statements, except as may be
required by law.
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SOURCE INOVIO Pharmaceuticals, Inc.