NovalGen appoints Dr Michael Owen and Mr Scott Clark to the Board of Directors

2023-01-09

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Two highly experienced industry executives who bring a wealth of leadership and drug development experience

LONDON, Jan. 09, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NovalGen Ltd (“NovalGen”), a biopharmaceutical company developing breakthrough cancer therapies, alongside a disruptive auto-regulation platform, today announces the appointment of Dr Michael Owen and Mr Scott Clark as Non-Executive Directors to its Board, effective January 2023.

“Both Mike and Scott are highly experienced industry executives who bring a wealth of leadership and drug development experience, and they will be an asset to our Board of Directors,” said Professor Amit Nathwani, Founder and CEO of NovalGen. “NovalGen is at a transformational stage in its development as we progress our lead product through the clinic as well as drive our pre-clinical programmes, including our first-in-class half-life extended T cell engager targeting ROR-1 with autoregulation capability, which demonstrates the inherent value in both our pipeline and our technology base.”

Dr Michael Owen has worked in biomedical research, and in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries for over 40 years. He currently serves as a director on four boards. He is the Chairman of Ossianix Inc, a privately held biotechnology company, and is also on the boards of Zealand Pharma A/S, ReNeuron plc and Sareum Holdings plc. Dr Owen is also an advisor to several Venture Capital LPs and is Chairman of Avacta plc’s SABs. Prior to board services, Dr Owen co-founded and served as the first CSO of Kymab Ltd, a biopharmaceutical company recently acquired by Sanofi. Prior to co-founding Kymab, he worked for GSK where he was SVP and Head of Research for Biopharmaceuticals R&D. Prior to joining the Pharma industry, Dr Owen was a Principal Scientist at the ICRF London laboratories (now CRUK) where he was noted for his work on lymphocyte development and on the molecular basis of diversity in the adaptive immune system. He received a BA degree from Oxford University and a PhD from Cambridge University. He was elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Mr Scott Clarke brings more than 25 years of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. He is currently the CEO of Ambagon Therapeutics, and serves on the board of Trishula Therapeutics, where he was previously CEO. Prior to that, Mr Clarke was CEO of Tizona Therapeutics. Under his leadership, Tizona’s two lead programs advanced into clinic, and the company built out its preclinical portfolio, culminating in the spinout of Tizona’s lead program into Trishula and Gilead’s acquisition of rights to the rest of Tizona’s pipeline for $300 million up front and $1.25 billion in milestones. Prior to Tizona, Mr Clark was the Global Head of Oncology Partnering and Head of Asia and Emerging Markets Partnering at Roche. Earlier in his career, he held senior roles at BioMarin, including the Senior Vice President of Product Development, responsible for advancing its portfolio of clinical and late preclinical product candidates through approval. He holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, an MSc in Biotechnology at Northwestern University, and an MBA from London Business School.

Further information

JW Communications

Julia Wilson

Tel. +44 (0) 7818 430877

Email: juliawilsonuk@gmail.com

About NovalGen

NovalGen is a privately held clinical stage immuno-oncology company developing breakthrough bispecific therapies that can safely harness the immune system to fight cancer, with the aim of creating life-saving new treatments for people with cancer. Alongside this, we are building out our auto-regulation platform that can be applied to a range of therapeutic indications outside of oncology, such as haematology as well as other immunotherapy indications, including cell-based therapies such as Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CAR-Ts).

Our dedicated team of experienced scientists, physicians and professionals are passionate about building a pipeline of disruptive and differentiated products tailored to the needs of the patient. The company’s lead program, NVG-111, is an ROR1-targeting bispecific antibody T-cell engager for the treatment of both hematologic malignancies and solid tumors using our breakthrough bispecifics technology.