After nearly a year without a permanent chief executive officer Advaxis, Inc. has a new hand on the wheel. This morning the company announced Kenneth A. Berlin will take over the helm of the company as president and CEO effective immediately.
After nearly a year without a permanent chief executive officer Advaxis, Inc. has a new hand on the wheel. This morning the company announced Kenneth A. Berlin will take over the helm of the company as president and CEO effective immediately.
Berlin, who most recently helmed Rosetta Genomics, takes over for interim CEO Anthony Lombardo, who took over following CEO Daniel O’Connor’s abrupt departure in July. Lombardo will remain with the company for an undisclosed period of time to help with the transition, the company said.
The announcement of a new CEO was not the only change to Advaxis’ leadership team announced today. In addition to Berlin’s appointment, Advaxis also announced Andres A. Gutierrez has been named chief medical officer. Chief Financial Officer Sara Bonstein will be leaving the company as of April 30 to pursue a new professional opportunity, the company added. Advaxis will conduct a CFO search and soon announce an interim appointment for the position.
“The opportunity to join Advaxis at such a pivotal and active time is very exciting,” Berlin said in a statement. “I look forward to building on the company’s strong foundations and to maximize the value of our Lm-based platform technology worldwide and in multiple indications.”
Berlin’s appointment comes about a month after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration halted a Phase I/II trial following the death of a patient. The FDA placed a clinical hold on the combination study of axalimogene filolisbac, a targeted Listeria monocytogenes (Lm)-based investigational immunotherapy, and AstraZeneca’s Imfinzi (durvalumab), which was being evaluated as a potential treatment of patients with advanced, recurrent or refractory human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated cervical cancer and HPV-associated head and neck cancer. The company is working to resolve the situation and advance its program.
With Berlin at the helm, Advaxis will be looking to harness his experience to drive growth. The company highlighted some of his corporate successes as a pharma executive for other companies. While at Rosetta Genomics Berlin spearheaded the effort to reposition the company with various microRNA-based oncology diagnostic products. Additionally, he raised nearly $100 million in capital to fund these efforts, Advaxis noted. Before Rosetta Genomics, Berlin was the Worldwide General Manager at cancer diagnostics developer Veridex, LLC, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. At Veridex he grew the organization to more 100 employees, launched three cancer diagnostic products, led the acquisition of its cellular diagnostics partner, and delivered significant growth in sales as Veridex transitioned from an R&D entity to a commercial provider of oncology diagnostic products and services.
“Ken brings to Advaxis a truly valuable combination of executive leadership experience with large and small, development-stage and commercial companies with a particular expertise in oncology. He has a proven ability to raise capital, launch products, achieve rapid sales growth, build businesses and complete strategic M&A and licensing transactions. We are fortunate to have Ken as our new chief executive,” David Sidransky Advaxis’ chairman of the board said in a statement.
New CMO Gutierrez will be responsible for all global clinical development and regulatory initiatives for Advaxis’ novel Lm-based antigen delivery platform, the company said. Before Advaxis he served as CMO of Oncolytics Biologics, Inc. He also held roles at SELLAS Life Sciences Group, BioMarin and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
