SHANGHAI and PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Antengene board today announced the appointment of Mr. Mark J. Alles as an independent director of the company, effective January 2, 2020. Mr. Alles is the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Celgene Corporation, now a subsidiary of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMS). In his 16-year tenure at Celgene, Mark led the expansion of the company into a global enterprise serving patients with blood cancers, solid tumor cancers and inflammatory diseases. He held a series of commercial and leadership roles of escalating responsibility, consistently delivering industry-leading financial performance. He led teams that completed several multibillion-dollar company and product acquisitions, built a diverse suite of globally marketed medicines and a high potential pipeline of therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, all of which led to the recently completed $74 billion-dollar acquisition of Celgene by BMS. His career spans more than three decades, with a distinguished record of driving medical innovation for patients worldwide.
Mark is a recognized industry leader with deep operational, financial, business development and commercial experience. He is a former board member of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), Gildaʼs Club NYC (nonprofit helping families of people with cancer), and a former member of the Trustees for the Healthcare Institute of New Jersey (HINJ).
"Mark is an accomplished business leader and an experienced board member in the biopharmaceutical industry. He led the growth of Celgene from a US-based organization with less than 500 employees, to a global company serving patients in more than 50 countries with 8,800 employees," said Dr. Jay Mei, Chairman and CEO of Antengene. "We are delighted to have Mark join our board. We are confident that he will add great value to our board of directors, and Antengene will benefit from his insights, guidance and counsel. Today Antengene is at critical stage to accelerate its growth through its strong R&D capabilities and evolving commercial infrastructure. Mark brings outstanding governance and commercial experience that will help promote our development and commercial strategy in China, the Asia Pacific regions and the rest of the world."
In addition to his role as Chairman and CEO at Celgene, Mr. Alles served in various leadership roles during his 32-year industry career, including Vice President of the U.S. Oncology business unit at Aventis Pharmaceuticals and other senior commercial management roles at Aventis (Rhône-Poulenc Rorer). He began his career in the pharmaceutical industry at Bayer and worked at Centocor before its acquisition by Johnson & Johnson.
"Antengene Corporation has rapidly become an important new China-and-U.S. based biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel therapeutics for the treatment of cancer," said Mr. Alles. "I am excited to be joining the Antengene Board now and look forward to working with the board and management team to deliver on the promise and potential of this dynamic organization."
About Antengene
Antengene is a China-and-U.S. based biopharmaceutical company focusing on drug discovery, clinical development and the commercialization of innovative therapeutics to meet unmet medical needs. Antengene aims to provide the most advanced and first-in-class anti-cancer drugs and other treatments for patients in China/Asia and around the world. Antengene's pipeline includes six clinical stage products: ATG-010 (selinexor), in combination with the corticosteroid dexamethasone, has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and is currently in registration study in China for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. The drug is also in late clinical development for various other hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. ATG-008, a second-generation dual mTORC1/2 inhibitor, is in a multi-regional clinical trial for treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma as well as clinical studies in multiple other solid tumors. Two other Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical stage drugs, ATG-016 and ATG-019, are being studied in multiple cancer types, including colorectal, prostate, NHL, MDS and other solid and hematological malignancies. ATG-527 is being explored for multiple anti-viral indications, including Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) related diseases. ATG-017 is a potent and selective small molecule extracellular signal–regulated kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) inhibitor, in clinical development for multiple solid tumors, NHL and AML. The drug discovery team of Antengene focuses on the development of first-in-class novel molecules with six projects in pre-clinical development, including small molecule, monoclonal and bi-specific antibodies.