WOBURN, Mass., March 26, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Replimune Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: REPL), a clinical stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of a novel class of oncolytic immunotherapies, today announced changes to its executive leadership team designed to support the Company’s preparations for the commercial launch of RP1, pending regulatory submission and approval in anti-PD1 failed melanoma.
Sushil Patel, Ph.D., will succeed Philip Astley-Sparke as CEO effective April 1, 2024. Mr. Astley-Sparke will transition from his current role as CEO to Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors. Dr. Patel joined Replimune three years ago initially as Chief Commercial Officer and served most recently as Chief Strategy Officer. He has more than 20 years of experience in the biotech industry including pre- and post-launch commercialization strategy and execution in both the U.S. and global markets. He has been involved in more than eight product launches in various roles of increasing responsibility across marketing, sales, and franchise management. Prior to joining Replimune, Dr. Patel served as franchise head for lung, skin and rare cancers at Genentech.
“Replimune is preparing to bring its first oncolytic immunotherapy to patients, and I am incredibly proud to be able to lead the Company through this next phase of growth as we transition to a commercial stage company,” said Sushil Patel. “In the near term, we will be laser focused on delivering on our strategic priorities, including the anti-PD1 failed melanoma data and subsequent biologics license application submission, as well as launching our confirmatory trial in melanoma.”
Additional changes include:
- Robert Coffin, Ph.D., Founder, President and Chief Research & Development Officer will move to an advisory role as Founder and Chief Scientist and will continue to serve on the Board of Directors.
- Paul Bullock is being appointed Chief Manufacturing Officer and will assume oversight of manufacturing and lead operations in Framingham and Milton Park in the United Kingdom, following the retirement of Colin Love, Ph.D., Chief Operations Officer, and co-founder, who established our manufacturing operations.
- Pamela Esposito, Ph.D., Chief Business Officer, and Tanya Lewis, Chief Development Operations Officer, will leave their executive positions and plan to continue to lend their functional expertise in an advisory capacity.
“In 2015, Philip and I set out on a journey to develop a new class of oncolytic immunotherapies,” said Robert Coffin, Ph.D., Founder, President and Chief Research & Development Officer of Replimune. “As we now look towards submitting our first BLA and to future commercialization, the time is right to transition from the team that founded the company to the one that will take us through a potential launch and beyond.”
Philip Astley-Sparke, CEO of Replimune continued, “Rob and I are very grateful for the invaluable contributions made by Colin Love, who established our state-of-the-art manufacturing capability, Pamela Esposito for driving our financing efforts and establishing our industry collaborations and to Tanya Lewis for scaling our operations. We all remain committed to supporting the company going forward and are confident that under Sushil’s leadership, Replimune will be well positioned to realize the promise of oncolytic immunotherapy across a broad range of indications in skin cancer and beyond.”
About Replimune
Replimune Group, Inc., headquartered in Woburn, MA, was founded in 2015 with the mission to transform cancer treatment by pioneering the development of a novel portfolio of oncolytic immunotherapies. Replimune’s proprietary RPx platform is based on a potent HSV-1 backbone intended to maximize immunogenic cell death and the induction of a systemic anti-tumor immune response. The RPx platform is designed to have a unique dual local and systemic activity consisting of direct selective virus-mediated killing of the tumor resulting in the release of tumor derived antigens and altering of the tumor microenvironment to ignite a strong and durable systemic response. The RPx product candidates are expected to be synergistic with most established and experimental cancer treatment modalities, leading to the versatility to be developed alone or combined with a variety of other treatment options. For more information, please visit www.replimune.com.
