CHARLESTON, S.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Leukogene Therapeutics Inc., a biotech company with the mission to deliver innovative immunotherapies for hard-to-treat cancers and emphasis on immunologically “cold” tumors, announced today the appointment of Dr. Sandeep Gupta as its Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Gupta has had a distinguished career in pharma spanning 25+ years as a leader and entrepreneur, including founding of Asana BioSciences, an oncology and immunology focused biotech. Under his leadership, multiple novel drug candidates including an antibody-drug-conjugate were discovered and advanced to clinical development in oncology and immunology. He led successful private financing for Asana and out-licensed multiple pipeline assets. Recently, Dr. Gupta was the CEO of Kashiv BioSciences, focused on developing and manufacturing biosimilars.
“We are pleased to welcome Sandeep to Leukogene. He is joining the company at a critical time. We are confident that his proven leadership and experience will be an asset to Leukogene, key for achieving its goals and making the company an enormous success,” said Dr. Lawrence Olanoff, Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Dr. Nathan Dolloff, co-founder and CSO and Dr. Frank Marcoux, co-founder and former CEO stated, “We are fortunate to have a seasoned industry veteran like Dr. Gupta with hands-on experience in oncology, immunology, and biologics development and manufacturing, lead the company. We have no doubts that his vision and enterprising spirit will guide Leukogene in delivering on the promise of its M2T™ immunotherapies for cancer patients.”
“I am thrilled to join Leukogene at this stage of its evolution. The M2T™ immunotherapy candidates discovered by Dr. Dolloff and his team represent a novel and exciting approach of channeling a robust immune response against difficult-to-treat cancers. I look forward to working closely with Dr. Dolloff and help the company achieve its mission of bringing highly effective treatments for cancer patients to the market,” said Dr. Gupta, CEO.
Previously, Dr. Gupta was a Senior Vice President of Discovery and Early Development at Endo Health Solutions, and Head of Discovery and Pharmacology at Forest Laboratories. He also held academic positions at the University of Pennsylvania and Boston University Schools of Medicine. Dr. Gupta received his Bachelor and Master of Pharmaceutical Sciences degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, India and Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Northeastern University, Boston.
About Leukogene Therapeutics Inc. and M2T™ immunotherapy
Leukogene Therapeutics, a spin-out from the Medical University of South Carolina based in Charleston, is an oncology focused biotech company.
M2T™ is a recombinant protein that conjugates a tumor associated antigen to a major histocompatibility complex II (MHCII) targeting protein that mimics MHCII binding motifs found in nature. It harnesses potent immunogenicity of MHCII presentation and triggers a robust tumor antigen specific immune response. Leukogene’s clinical development candidates in acute myeloid leukemia and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma have demonstrated proof of concept in preclinical models.
Leukogene is an NCI and SCRA SC Launch portfolio company.
