New Scientific Advisory Board member to help guide Hemogenyx toward the release of successful antibody-based therapies

Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals has appointed a pioneer in modern cancer research H. Michael Shepard to its Scientific Advisory Board, praising his work that has led to the discovery and development of many successful cancer treatments, including Herceptin/trastuzumab.

Herceptin/trastuzumab, an antibody used to treat breast cancer patients and its biosimilars have reached sales that currently exceed $6.5 billion worldwide, Hemogenyx said Tuesday in a press release.

Hemogenyx, a company developing breakthrough therapies for the treatment of blood diseases, is looking forward to Shepard’s advising for the pre-clinical and clinical development of its lead candidate CDX antibodies. These highly specific CDX antibodies selectively eliminate hematopoietic stem cells and progenitors and a subset of acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), and promise to offer safer alternatives to chemotherapy and radiation as means of eliminating refractory/relapsed AML and patient conditioning before bone marrow transplants, the company has said.

Dr. Shepard, said: “Hemogenyx is developing cancer therapies that have the potential to save lives, and I’m proud to be a part of that. As a member of Hemogenyx’s Scientific Advisory Board, I’ll be able to use the experience I’ve accrued working with other pre-clinical biotechnology programmes to help guide Hemogenyx toward the release of successful antibody-based therapies.” 

Dr. Vladislav Sandler, CEO of Hemogenyx, said: “Hemogenyx has always sought out experienced experts with extensive biotech and large pharma drug development experience – and Michael Shepard has all of those qualities. I’m confident that our well-established and enviable Advisory Board will benefit from Dr. Shepard’s vast experience as we develop life-saving therapies that will transform bone marrow and blood stem cell transplant treatments.”

Hemogenyx’s shares have been going down since Friday’s 4,8, to 4.28