ST. LOUIS & SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Wugen, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a pipeline of off-the-shelf cell therapies to treat a broad range of hematological and solid tumor malignancies, today announced the appointment of industry veteran Mark Alles as Chair of the Board of Directors. Mr. Alles is the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Celgene Corporation. He has over 30 years of biopharmaceutical experience, and an outstanding record of driving growth and innovation at multiple oncology-focused organizations. Mr. Alles succeeds Natalie Mount, Ph.D., who will transition to Board Director.
“Mark is a highly regarded industry veteran with a wealth of operational, financial, business development, and commercial experience building and scaling oncology companies. We are thrilled to welcome him, and his counsel as board chair will be invaluable to Wugen as we continue to advance our pipeline and growth objectives,” said Kumar Srinivasan, Ph.D., M.B.A., President and Chief Executive Officer of Wugen.
“I am honored to serve as Chair of Wugen’s Board of Directors,” said Mr. Alles. “Wugen’s memory NK approach holds tremendous promise as a new approach for next-generation cancer therapies. I am eager to partner with the board and management team in the years ahead to build Wugen into a leading memory NK company and deliver on our shared vision of transforming care for cancer patients.”
“On behalf of the Board of Directors, I am delighted to welcome Mark as our new Chair,” said Dr. Mount. “We look forward to working with Mark to continue to support Wugen’s evolution advancing transformative cell therapies to and through the clinic.”
During his 15-year tenure at Celgene, Mr. Alles executed on several multi-billion-dollar company and asset acquisitions, helped to build a broad portfolio of globally marketed medicines and high-potential cancer therapeutics, and led the expansion of Celgene from a US-based organization of 500 employees to a global company with more than 8,800 employees serving patients across the world. Mr. Alles’ leadership at Celgene ultimately led to the company’s acquisition by Bristol Myers Squibb for $74 billion in 2019. Prior to joining Celgene in 2004, Mr. Alles served as Vice President of the U.S. Oncology business unit at Aventis Pharmaceuticals, where he held additional senior management roles. He began his career in industry at Bayer and Centocor prior to its acquisition by Johnson & Johnson.
Mr. Alles is a recognized industry and community leader. He has served on the Boards of several biopharmaceutical companies and industry groups, including at Turning Point Therapeutics (acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb for $4.1B in 2022) where he served as Chair, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), and Gilda’s Club NYC (non-profit helping families of people living with cancer). He is also a former member of the Trustees for the Healthcare Institute of New Jersey (HINJ). Currently, he is a member of the Board of Directors of multiple public and private biotechnology companies, including BioMarin Pharmaceutical, Syros Pharmaceuticals, PIKSci Inc, and TORL BioTherapeutics, and serves on the Board of Trustees for Misericordia University. Mr. Alles holds a B.S. from Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania and served as a Captain in the U.S. Marine Corps.
About Wugen
Wugen, Inc., is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing the next generation of off-the-shelf memory natural killer (NK) and CAR-T cell therapies for cancer. Wugen is leveraging its proprietary Moneta™ platform and deep genomic engineering expertise to pioneer a new class of memory NK cell therapies to treat hematological and solid tumor malignancies. For more information, please visit www.wugen.com.
