SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MEI Pharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: MEIP), a late-stage pharmaceutical company focused on advancing new therapies for cancer, today announced that Christine A. White, M.D., has decided to retire and thus does not intend to stand for reelection at the Company’s fiscal year 2023 annual meeting of stockholders after a seven-year tenure as chair of the board and 12 years total serving as a director. Charles V. Baltic III, J.D., who has served on the board since 2011, has been elected to replace Dr. White as chair of the board. Dr. White’s retirement and Mr. Baltic’s assumption of the chair are effective as of the Company’s fiscal year 2023 annual meeting of stockholders.
“On behalf of the board and management, I would like to thank Christine for her unwavering dedication and strategic guidance during her 12-year tenure on the board of directors,” said Daniel P. Gold, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of MEI Pharma. “She is a remarkable person and an oncology biopharmaceutical thought leader who has provided invaluable leadership, grounded insight and clear direction, which has significantly supported MEI’s growth and the advancement of its oncology drug candidates. We sincerely wish her all the best in her retirement.”
Dr. Gold continued: “Although we will miss Christine, we are very fortunate to have Charles as our chair elect. We look forward to working with Charles in his new capacity as board chair to leverage his history and familiarity with MEI. His extensive industry and professional experience will be invaluable in advancing our mission to improve outcomes for patients with cancer through our efforts to develop and commercialize novel, best-in-class therapies.”
Mr. Baltic has served as a director of MEI Pharma since October 2011 and as chair of the nominating and governance committee since 2012. He also serves as a director and chair of the board of AssayQuant Technologies, Inc., a private company focused on kinase-based assay drug development technologies exclusively licensed to AssayQuant by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Baltic most recently served as executive vice president and COO of SIDIS Corp. from 2019 to 2021, overseeing the sale of the Propel Labs flow cytometry business to Thermo Fisher Scientific in February 2021. Since 1996, Mr. Baltic has held several healthcare investment banking positions, most recently at Needham & Company, LLC as managing director and co-head of healthcare banking until 2019 and as senior advisor from 2019 to 2022. Mr. Baltic also served on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Advisory Committee on small and emerging growth companies from 2013 to 2015.
About MEI Pharma
MEI Pharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: MEIP) is a late-stage pharmaceutical company focused on developing potential new therapies for cancer. MEI Pharma's portfolio of drug candidates contains multiple clinical-stage assets, including zandelisib, currently in ongoing clinical trials which may support marketing approvals with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory authorities globally. Each of MEI Pharma's pipeline candidates leverages a different mechanism of action with the objective of developing therapeutic options that are: (1) differentiated, (2) address unmet medical needs and (3) deliver improved benefit to patients either as standalone treatments or in combination with other therapeutic options. For more information, please visit www.meipharma.com. Follow us on Twitter @MEI_Pharma and on LinkedIn.
Forward-Looking Statements
Under U.S. law, a new drug cannot be marketed until it has been investigated in clinical studies and approved by the FDA as being safe and effective for the intended use. Statements included in this press release that are not historical in nature are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding the results of our clinical trials of zandelisib, the anticipated timing of our submission of an FDA marketing application for zandelisib, the anticipated timing of the disclosure of the final study data for our Phase 2 TIDAL trial, the timing and success of enrollment for our Phase 3 COASTAL trial, our projected financial position and our expected cash runway, the overall advancement of our product candidates in clinical trials and our plans to continue development of our product candidates. We may in some cases use terms such as “predicts,” “believes,” “potential,” “continue,” “anticipates,” “estimates,” “expects,” “plans,” “intends,” “may,” “could,” “might,” “likely,” “will,” “should” or other words that convey uncertainty of the future events or outcomes to identify these forward-looking statements. You should be aware that our actual results could differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, which are based on management's current expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, our failure to successfully commercialize our product candidates; the availability or appropriateness of utilizing the FDA’s accelerated approval pathway for our product candidates; final data from our pre-clinical studies and completed clinical trials may differ materially from reported interim data from ongoing studies and trials; costs and delays in the development and/ or FDA approval of our product candidates, or the failure to obtain such approval, of our product candidates; uncertainties or differences in interpretation in clinical trial results; the risk that our clinical trials are discontinued or delayed for any reason, including for safety, tolerability, enrollment, manufacturing or economic reasons; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our industry and individual companies, including on our counterparties, the supply chain, the execution of our clinical development programs, our access to financing and the allocation of government resources; our inability to maintain or enter into, and the risks resulting from our dependence upon, collaboration or contractual arrangements necessary for the development, manufacture, commercialization, marketing, sales and distribution of any products; competitive factors; our inability to protect our patents or proprietary rights and obtain necessary rights to third party patents and intellectual property to operate our business; our inability to operate our business without infringing the patents and proprietary rights of others; general economic conditions; the failure of any products to gain market acceptance; our inability to obtain any additional required financing; technological changes; government regulation; changes in industry practice; and one-time events. We do not intend to update any of these factors or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to these forward-looking statements.