OXFORD, United Kingdom--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PsiOxus Therapeutics, Ltd. (PsiOxus) today announced the appointment of Dr Charles “Charlie” Morris as Chief Development Officer and Karen LaRochelle as Chief Business Officer, both of whom will be based in the United States. These are the first C-Level appointments in the US for the Oxford, UK based company as part of a planned expansion both in the UK and the US.
In addition, PsiOxus has also announced a reorganization of the executive team with Dr Brian Champion, formerly SVP Research and Development, becoming Chief Scientific Officer whilst Dr Kerry Fisher, the former Chief Scientific Officer, will become Founding Scientist and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board. Priya Mande will take on additional new responsibilities in her role as Chief Operating Officer and will also join the Board as an Executive Director of the Company. Dr Hilary McElwaine-Johnn will remain as Chief Medical Officer whilst Theodora Harold will step down as Chief Financial Officer to pursue other opportunities.
Dr Charles Morris brings to PsiOxus over 20 years’ experience of oncology drug development in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. After receiving his medical degrees from Sheffield University Medical School, he went on to train in Medical Oncology at The Christie Hospital in Manchester and then went on to join Zeneca (later AstraZeneca) pharmaceuticals. He subsequently became Vice President of Clinical Research, Oncology, at Cephalon, before becoming Chief Medical Officer for Allos Therapeutics (acquired by Spectrum Pharmaceuticals in 2012). Most recently he was Chief Development Officer for ImmunoGen, Inc, leading the efforts to progress the proprietary pipeline resulting in their lead candidate being taken into Phase 3 development. Charlie has made important contributions to the development and approval of novel therapeutics for both solid and haematological tumours and has extensive experience in all phases of drug development.
Karen LaRochelle brings over 20 years of business development experience gained mostly during her earlier career at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) where she was most recently Executive Director of Global Business Development based in Princeton, NJ. Prior to her appointment as Chief Business Officer, Karen acted as a consultant to PsiOxus and was instrumental in securing the recent clinical collaboration deal with BMS for the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo ®) and PsiOxus’ oncolytic virus, enadenotucirev, in solid tumors. Karen obtained her MBA from Columbia Business School.
“I am delighted to welcome Karen and Charlie to reinforce our Executive Team at this key stage of our growth,” stated John Beadle, M.D., Chief Executive Officer, PsiOxus. “Charlie brings over two decades of oncology development expertise at a time that we are expanding our clinical stage activities in both the US and Europe, whilst Karen’s impressive track record of over 50 successful transactions will be critical in achieving our portfolio strategy, which will be built upon a series of strategic collaborations using our T-SIGn platform. It is with sadness that we say goodbye to Theo and wish her every success in her new endeavors.”
The expansion of PsiOxus into the US is being facilitated by Foothold America. Foothold America hires employees on the behalf of foreign companies without a US legal entity and manages benefits and payroll. Foothold America is supporting PsiOxus as it expands to the US and conducts its first US clinical trials in partnership with Bristol-Myers Squibb. Rob Johnson, Partner at Foothold America, commented “We are pleased to assist PsiOxus during this exciting period of their growth. Our support means PsiOxus will be able to focus on developing high impact new medicines rather than dealing with the complexity of US employment. I’m confident this expansion will transform their business.”
About PsiOxus Therapeutics Ltd.
PsiOxus Therapeutics, an Oxford, UK-based development stage biotechnology company focused upon immune-oncology, has developed a patented platform for delivering tumor-targeted oncolytic immune therapeutics systemically. The Tumor-Specific Immuno-Gene (T-SIGn) therapy platform is based on the company's oncolytic virus, enadenotucirev, which has unique properties that allow it to be delivered systemically via intravenous administration and to replicate only in tumor cells. The anti-cancer capability can be further enhanced through “arming” – a process that involves the addition of new genes into the virus. The armed T-SIGn platform makes possible creation of a broad range of systemically delivered oncolytic immune therapeutics including oncolytic viruses that express one or more antibodies, cytokines, immunomodulatory proteins, or nucleotide (RNA) based payloads. The T-SIGn platform is in preclinical stage, while phase I/II clinical trials are ongoing with enadenotucirev in different tumor types and with different combinations including checkpoint inhibitors and conventional chemotherapeutics.
About Foothold America
Foothold America, an Alacrita service, makes it easy, safe and affordable to employ a US worker without the cost and complexity of forming a foreign subsidiary. Foothold America administers all employee benefits including health insurance, retirement benefits, life insurance and manages payroll. This removes the bureaucratic burden from the client company, enabling it to focus on its core business.
