GAITHERSBURG, Md., April 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arcellx, a privately held clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, today announced that it has hired two new executives to join the company’s leadership team. Dr. Christopher Heery has been named Chief Medical Officer (CMO) where he will have responsibility for clinical, regulatory and medical affairs and Neeraj Teotia has been named Chief Commercial Officer where he will have responsibility for marketing, sales, and health economics and reimbursement.
“We are excited to strengthen our leadership team with the additions of Chris and Neeraj as they bring significant expertise to Arcellx and reflect our values and culture. They will lead two critically important areas — advancing our clinical programs to meet all requirements for regulatory approvals and ensuring successful commercialization post approval,” said Rami Elghandour, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Arcellx. “Chris will lead our talented clinical and regulatory teams in progressing our clinical pipeline by executing our CART-ddBCMA pivotal study in multiple myeloma, initiating a Phase 1 study for our novel ARC-SparX program in multiple myeloma later this year and planning our anticipated Phase 1 ARC-SparX study in acute myelogenous leukemia that is targeted to start in 2022. In concert with these clinical programs progressing, Neeraj will lead the development of our commercial strategy and build our commercial teams to successfully execute our growth plans.”
Dr. Heery has developed significant expertise in cellular therapies through his time at Precision Biosciences and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) where he led numerous programs through clinical trials. As the CMO at Precision Biosciences he oversaw the clinical development of one of the first allogeneic CAR-T cell platforms and provided clinical insight into efforts for their gene editing therapeutics. Prior to his most recent role at Precision Biosciences, Dr. Heery was the CMO of Bavarian Nordic where he oversaw clinical development programs for their immune-oncology and infectious disease vaccine portfolio.
Before moving into industry, Dr. Heery was Head of the Clinical Trials Group of the Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology at NCI. During his time at the NCI he was part of the larger effort of the Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology to create new immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer. Dr. Heery is board certified in Medical Oncology and Internal Medicine and completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Illinois at Chicago after receiving his M.D. from East Carolina University Brody School of Medicine. Dr. Heery also holds a B.A. in English Literature from Duke University.
Mr. Teotia joins Arcellx with more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry. Most recently he served as the Vice President of Marketing at Nevro where he and his team set and helped execute commercial plans for a rapidly growing business that grew over 10x during his tenure. His responsibilities included product and clinical portfolio strategy, branding, demand generation, key thought leader engagement, professional education, sales forecasting and analytics, sales management, sales training, and market access. Prior to Nevro, Mr. Teotia worked at Johnson & Johnson where he had various roles of increasing responsibility within Marketing, Licensing & Acquisitions and Research & Development. Mr. Teotia received an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
“The additions of Chris and Neeraj emphasize our commitment to building a leading organization in cell therapy and advancing our novel pipeline. We believe the innovations we are bringing to the clinic will help advance and expand patient care and adding experienced leaders like Chris and Neeraj will ensure we maximize the impact of our therapies to the benefit of the physicians and patients we serve,” said Rami Elghandour.
About Arcellx, Inc.
Arcellx is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing adaptive and controllable cell therapies for the treatment of patients with cancer and autoimmune diseases. The Arcellx vision is to utilize our novel proprietary platform to bring superior cell therapies to more patients through the care of academic and community practices worldwide. More information can be found at www.arcellx.com.
