SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Asher Biotherapeutics, a biotechnology company developing precisely-targeted immunotherapies for cancer, autoimmune, and infectious diseases, today announced the appointment of Ian T. Clark to its Board of Directors. Mr. Clark most recently served as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and a member of the Board of Directors at Genentech.
“We are pleased to welcome Ian as a member of our board,” said Craig Gibbs, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Asher Bio. “Ian dedicated his career to developing novel medicines for cancer and other diseases with high unmet need and, in addition to his track record as a corporate executive, he has served on several different boards, supporting early-stage biotechnology companies in their development efforts and corporate growth. With his deep global expertise, Ian will bring important perspective to Asher Bio, and we look forward to his many contributions as we build clinical and corporate strategies to deliver our precision immunotherapies to patients, while also cultivating a supportive and collaborative culture.”
“I am honored to serve on Asher Bio’s Board. I am inspired by Asher Bio’s patient-focused mission and look forward to working with the team to harness the power of cis-targeting to overcome the limitations of existing immune-based therapies,” said Mr. Clark. “In just a couple of years, Asher Bio has developed a pipeline of highly differentiated immunotherapies, including its lead program AB248, a CD8-targeted IL-2, AB821, a CD8-targeted IL-21, and a CART-targeted IL-2, which together demonstrate the ability of the company’s platform to rapidly generate new molecules targeting different immunomodulators to a diverse set of immune cells. I am eager to share my expertise as the company advances its first programs into Phase 1 studies and we seek to establish the clinical utility of cis-targeted immunotherapies.”
Mr. Clark has more than 35 years of experience in the biopharma industry. Until his retirement in 2016, Mr. Clark served as CEO of Genentech. During his seven-year tenure as CEO, Mr. Clark and his team brought 11 new medicines to market for patients living with rheumatoid arthritis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and various types of cancer. In addition, Mr. Clark was named among the highest rated CEOs by Glassdoor, recognized as the Bay Area’s most admired CEO by the San Francisco Business Times awarded the Honorable Mentor of the Year by the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association. Prior to assuming his role as CEO, Mr. Clark held several senior management positions across Genentech, including Head of Global Product Strategy, Chief Marketing Officer, Senior Vice President, General Manager of BioOncology and Executive Vice President, Commercial Operations. Before joining Genentech, Mr. Clark spent over two decades in the pharmaceutical industry in senior roles at Novartis, Ivax Pharma and Sanofi in the United Kingdom, France and Eastern Europe. He began his career in sales and marketing at Searle, a subsidiary of Monsanto Corporation.
Mr. Clark currently serves on the boards of several private and public biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Guardant Health Inc., Olema Oncology, and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited . He is also on the BioFulcrum Board of the Gladstone Institute. Mr. Clark previously served on the Boards of Forty Seven Inc., Kite Pharma, Inc., and Shire Pharmaceuticals Inc. He was also on the Board of Biotechnology Industry Association and on the Economic Advisory Council of the 12th District of the Federal Reserve. Mr. Clark received his B.S. in Biological Sciences and an Honorary Doctorate of Science, both from Southampton University.
About Asher Bio
Asher Bio is a biotechnology company developing precisely targeted immunotherapies for cancer and other diseases. Our cis-targeting platform aims to enable selective activation of specific immune cell types, addressing the inherent limitations of otherwise pleiotropic immunotherapies that act on multiple cell types. Our approach has the potential to precisely direct different immune mediators against a range of target immune cell-types and create best-in-class immunotherapies in cancer, autoimmune and infectious diseases. Asher Bio was founded by Ivana Djuretic and Andy Yeung with support from Third Rock Ventures and is located in South San Francisco. For more information, please visit www.asherbio.com and follow us on Twitter @AsherBio and on LinkedIn.
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