NexImmune, Inc. announced that Jack A. Ragheb, MD, PhD, has been appointed to the newly created position of Senior Vice President, Translational Science, bringing more than 30 years of experience in translational and clinical research in the fields of cell therapy, gene therapy, immunology and virology.
- Dr. Jack A. Ragheb as Senior Vice President, Translational Science
- Matt Schiller, Head of Business Development
GAITHERSBURG, Md., July 14, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NexImmune, Inc. (Nasdaq: NEXI), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a novel approach to immunotherapy designed to orchestrate a targeted immune response by directing the function of antigen-specific T cells, today announced that Jack A. Ragheb, MD, PhD, has been appointed to the newly created position of Senior Vice President, Translational Science, bringing more than 30 years of experience in translational and clinical research in the fields of cell therapy, gene therapy, immunology and virology. In addition, Matt Schiller has been appointed to Head of Business Development, bringing more than 20 years of business development experience across developmental stage life science companies and large pharma.
“We are excited to announce the continued expansion of our leadership team,” said Scott Carmer, Chief Executive Officer of NexImmune. “Jack brings decades of relevant experience that span the fields of translational science and clinical research. He joins us at a critical point as we advance the work needed to translate the pre-clinical potential of our proprietary AIM-nanoparticle technology platform into clinical development programs across the cancer, infectious disease and auto-immune disease areas. His expertise and insight will help inform and drive much of this work.”
“Matt has a proven track record in global pharmaceutical and biotech business development. As a small and growing company, we will be looking for both academic and strategic partnerships to help us efficiently advance and expand our technology platform into areas both within and outside of our current focus on cancer. We are thrilled to have Matt join us in a role that’s responsible for leading these important efforts to fruition,” continued Mr. Carmer.
Dr. Ragheb was most recently a Senior Medical Fellow for Immunology and Co-chair of the Immunogenicity/Immunosafety Working group at Eli Lilly. Prior to his time at Eli Lilly, Dr. Ragheb was a Chief Medical Research Officer in the Office of Biological Products with the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the U.S. FDA. He was previously a Senior Clinical Investigator at the National Eye Institute, NIH and an Attending Physician on the Allergy-Immunology Service of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), NIH. Dr. Ragheb trained at Johns Hopkins University, obtaining both an M.D. and Ph.D. in Genetics. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Allergy and Immunology.
“I’m humbled and excited to join the highly accomplished team at NexImmune and look forward to contributing to the advancement of its preclinical pipeline and clinical assets,” said Dr. Ragheb.
Mr. Schiller has over 20 years of experience in business development, global licensing and commercial development. Most recently, Mr. Schiller served as Director, Global Licensing & Business Development, Immunology at EMD Serono, a business of Merck KGaA. Prior to his time at EMD Serono, Mr. Schiller served as Head of Licensing at Cell Signaling Technology, VP of Business Development at Ensemble Discovery and Senior Director of Business Development at Critical Therapeutics. Mr. Schiller holds a BS in Chemistry from the University of South Florida.
“NexImmune’s ability to direct T Cells may create significantly better outcomes for people with chronic and life-threatening diseases,” said Mr. Schiller. “I look forward to enabling partnerships that will help bring this exciting technology to patients.”
About NexImmune
NexImmune is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a novel approach to immunotherapy designed to employ the body’s own T cells to generate a specific, potent, and durable immune response. The backbone of NexImmune’s approach is a proprietary Artificial Immune Modulation (AIM™) nanoparticle technology platform. The AIM technology enables NexImmune to construct nanoparticles that function as synthetic dendritic cells capable of directing a specific T cell-mediated immune response. AIM constructed nanoparticles employ natural biology to engage, activate and expand endogenous T cells in ways that combine anti-tumor attributes of antigen-specific precision, potency and long-term persistence with reduced potential for off-target toxicities.
NexImmune’s two lead programs, NEXI-001 and NEXI-002, are in Phase 1/2 clinical trials for the treatment of relapsed AML after allogeneic stem cell transplantation and multiple myeloma refractory to at least 3 prior lines of therapy, respectively. NexImmune is also developing new AIM nanoparticle constructs and modalities for potential clinical evaluation in oncology and in disease areas outside of oncology, including autoimmune disorders and infectious disease.
For more information, visit www.neximmune.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release may contain “forward-looking” statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are based on the beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management of NexImmune, Inc. (the “Company”). All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this press release are forward-looking statements, including statements concerning our planned and ongoing clinical studies for the Company’s product candidates, including NEXI-001 and NEXI-002; the initiation, enrollment, timing, progress, release of data from and results of those planned and ongoing clinical studies; and the utility of prior preclinical and clinical data in determining future clinical results. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company’s actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risks and uncertainties set forth in the “Risk Factors” section of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on March 31, 2021, and subsequent reports that we file with the SEC. Forward-looking statements represent the Company’s beliefs and assumptions only as of the date of this press release. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this press release to conform any of the forward-looking statements to actual results or to changes in its expectations.
Contacts
Investors:
Chad Rubin, SVP Corporate Affairs
NexImmune, Inc.
646.319.3261
crubin@neximmune.com
Media:
Mike Beyer
Sam Brown Inc. Healthcare Communications
312.961.2502
mikebeyer@sambrown.com
