SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Juno Therapeutics (Nasdaq: JUNO), a biopharmaceutical company focused on re-engaging the body's immune system to revolutionize the treatment of cancer, announced the appointment of Robert Azelby as Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer, effective immediately. Prior to joining Juno, Mr. Azelby was at Amgen, where he was Vice President and General Manager of Amgen’s Oncology Business Unit.
“Bob is a tremendous leader who will build a world-class commercial team at Juno,” said Hans Bishop, Juno’s Chief Executive Officer and President. “His experience in growing an impressive oncology business, including planning commercial strategy and overseeing multiple launches, will play a critical role in Juno’s next phase of growth.”
At Amgen, Mr. Azelby was responsible for the Oncology Business Unit, representing over $6 billion in annual revenue with over 600 sales and marketing personnel. Since taking over leadership in May 2012, Bob grew the business to be the second largest oncology division in the U.S.
“I am excited to join Juno at a time when we have the opportunity to shape commercial strategies for a new and innovative class of product candidates that have the potential to benefit patients suffering with cancer. I look forward to building and leading a top-tier organization that will help bring these exciting medicines to patients,” said Mr. Azelby.
During his 15 year tenure at Amgen, Mr. Azelby was also the Vice President of Amgen’s U.S. Oncology Sales team, which is one of the largest oncology sales teams in the U.S. In addition, Bob has been the Vice President of Amgen’s North American Commercial Effectiveness Unit, responsible for sales and marketing functions, including market research, forecasting, sales training, and sales operations. Bob garnered international experience as Amgen’s General Manager, Netherlands, responsible for all aspects of its commercial operations in that country. Before then, Bob held numerous sales and marketing positions, each with increasing responsibilities. Roles included project management, business development, regional sales management, and national marketing director. Mr. Azelby will report to Mr. Bishop.
Mr. Azelby received his undergraduate degrees in Economics and Religious Studies from the University of Virginia and his Master of Business Administration from Harvard University.
About Juno Therapeutics, Inc.
Juno Therapeutics is building a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company focused on revolutionizing medicine by re-engaging the body's immune system to treat 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 evidence of tumor shrinkage in the clinical trials in refractory leukemia and lymphoma conducted to date. Juno's long-term aim is to improve and 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, 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 Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding Juno’s growth, the characteristics of Juno’s commercial team, and the potential of Juno product candidates to benefit patients suffering from cancer. 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 of product candidates for which Celgene exercises an option; 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 Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 14, 2015 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.
