NEW YORK, Jan. 23, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.  (NYSE American: ATNM) ("Actinium" or "the Company") announced today the appointment of Cynthia Pussinen as Executive Vice President, Technical Operations and Supply Chain.  In this position, Ms. Pussinen will serve as a member of Actinium's executive leadership team and will be responsible for strategy and execution of Actinium's operational and tactical plans for product development, drug manufacturing, infrastructure, and supply chain.  Actinium is advancing the only multi-disease, multi-target, clinical-stage pipeline for targeted conditioning to enable cellular therapies such as BMT or Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) and CAR-T.  The target market for Actinium's ARC or Antibody Radiation Conjugate drug candidates is concentrated within the top 75-100 hospitals in the U.S. that perform a majority of BMT and CAR-T procedures.  Further developing its technical operations and supply chain capabilities under seasoned leadership is a natural evolution for the Company given the progression of its later stage pipeline, development of its AWE technology platform for partnering and optionality available to grow further as an independent specialty oncology company.

Ms. Pussinen brings 25 years of highly relevant technical operations and supply chain experience from executive roles at global biopharmaceutical organizations Pfizer and Ipsen to Actinium. Cynthia joins Actinium from Pfizer, where she was the Head of Strategic Portfolio Management, Worldwide Research & Development. In this role she led efforts to maximize the value of Pfizer's pre-Proof of Concept portfolio across 6 research units, including driving pipeline decision making, portfolio prioritization and clinical portfolio investment efforts across the R&D organization. Cynthia's valuable experience include the roles of President and General Manager of Ipsen Biosciences, Inc. where she led the operational and strategic directions of this subsidiary company, including maintaining an annual operating budget of more than $100 million, and managing two sites with more than 220 employees. As Global Head of Supply Chain Logistics at Pfizer, she managed investigational study drug distribution for the entire Pfizer portfolio.

Sandesh Seth, Actinium's Chairman and CEO said, "We are pleased to expand our core leadership team with a seasoned executive of Cynthia's caliber who has a proven ability to execute and drive growth in areas that are highly relevant to Actinium. I believe that Actinium's ability to attract new members to our team with this level of experience speaks volumes about the progress our team has made, recognition of the opportunity in targeted conditioning and the potential of our AWE platform. As our pipeline expands and key programs including the SIERRA pivotal trial, the Actimab-MDS trial and Iomab-ACT for CART progress, Cynthia's leadership capabilities, which have been proven at global organizations, will have an invaluable impact in enabling our Company to gear up and be well prepared to successfully unlock the potential of these programs. Further, her immense experience in research and development and strategy will allow her to seamlessly integrate with our clinical and R&D teams to create value through pipeline expansion and strategic opportunities by leveraging our powerful AWE platform. I am excited to welcome Cynthia to our team and look forward to working with her in continuing to build Actinium's leadership position in targeted conditioning and ARCs."

Ms. Pussinen is a proven leader who is known for her ability to build, grow and lead manufacturing and supply chain teams at global life sciences companies, while delivering bottom line results with significant, positive business impact. Her experience spans the drug development continuum, as she focused on transforming business processes and organizations to maximize return.  Ms. Pussinen has spent much of her career in senior roles at Pfizer where she oversaw different aspects of the company's supply chain, portfolio and project leadership and research efforts. Prior to joining Actinium, Ms. Pussinen was the Head of Strategic Portfolio Management, Worldwide Research & Development at Pfizer. There she led efforts for Pfizer's pre-Proof of Concept portfolio across six research units aimed at maximizing value and enhancing R&D productivity through pipeline decision making, portfolio prioritization and clinical portfolio investment efforts. In addition to her tenure at Pfizer, Ms. Pussinen held executive roles at Ipsen, including most recently as President and General Manager for Ipsen Biosciences, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Ipsen. During this time, she maintained an annual operating budget of more than $100 million and managed two sites with more than 220 employees while leading the operational and strategic directions of this subsidiary company. Through the management of process sciences, manufacturing, quality, facilities and supply chain, Cynthia led efforts to supply a novel biologic drug while preparing for a BLA submission, pre-approval site inspection and commercial build. In addition, she delivered a state-of-the-art R&D facility head of schedule and on budget. Cynthia began her career at Pfizer where she held roles of increasing responsibility including as the Global Head of Supply Chain Logistics, and as a Portfolio Director and Chief of Staff within Worldwide Portfolio and Program Management. Cynthia received a BS in Chemistry from the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT and earned her MS in Management of R&D from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY.

Ms. Pussinen said, "I was drawn to Actinium based on its highly differentiated portfolio focused on targeted conditioning, which represents a unique opportunity that I believe is unmatched across the biopharma industry. I look forward to drawing on my past experiences in operations and supply chain to support Actinium's clinical activities with the goal of establishing industry best execution as we continue to advance the pivotal Phase 3 SIERRA trial for Iomab-B, Iomab-ACT and Actimab-MDS programs for targeted conditioning. Additionally, Actinium's AWE technology platform represents an exciting vehicle for pipeline expansion and strategic partnerships that has benefited from the renewed attention and personnel that Actinium has dedicated to it.  With my background in R&D infrastructure development, portfolio planning and strategy, I am incredibly excited to work with our R&D team to drive value from this important asset. Collectively, Actinium has integrated a robust R&D engine with a robust supply chain that is routinely delivering drug product to key tertiary care centers that treat a great number of patients with high unmet needs and I believe this end to end one stop solution will be highly attractive to potential AWE partners. Finally, I look forward to working with new my colleagues across the organization and playing a part in helping to bring these potentially lifesaving technologies to patient populations that are in such great need for more effective therapies."

About Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Actinium Pharmaceuticals Inc. is focused on improving patient access and outcomes to cellular therapies such as bone marrow transplant (BMT) and CAR-T with its proprietary, chemotherapy free, targeted conditioning technology. Actinium is the only company with a multi-disease, multi-target, drug development pipeline focused on targeted conditioning. Its targeted conditioning technology is enabled by ARCs or Antibody Radio-Conjugates that combine the targeting ability of monoclonal antibodies with the cell killing ability of radioisotopes. Actinium's pipeline of clinical-stage targeted conditioning ARCs target the antigens CD45 and CD33 for patients with a broad range of hematologic malignancies including acute myeloid leukemia (AML), myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and multiple myeloma (MM).

Iomab-B, Actinium's lead targeted conditioning product candidate, is currently enrolling patients in the pivotal Phase 3 SIERRA trial in patients age 55 or older, with active, relapsed or refractory AML. Iodine-131 apamistamab (Iomab-B), combines the anti-CD45 monoclonal antibody labeled with iodine-131 for myeloablation prior to a bone marrow transplant. CD45 is expressed on leukemia, lymphoma and normal immune cells. Iomab-B has been studied in over 500 patients in 10 clinical trials in numerous hematologic diseases. Actinium's Iomab-ACT program is an expansion of its CD45 program that is intended to be a universal, chemo-free solution for targeted lymphodepletion prior to CAR-T. Through targeted lymphodepletion, the Iomab-ACT program is expected to improve CAR-T cell expansion, reduce CAR-T related toxicities and expand patient access to CAR-T treatment and potentially other adoptive cell therapies. Due to its lower payload dose, lymphodepletion with the Iomab-ACT program can be accomplished through a single outpatient infusion. Actinium intends to advance its Iomab-ACT program with CAR-T focused collaborators from academia and industry.

Actinium's pipeline also includes a potentially best-in-class CD33 program with its ARC comprised of the anti-CD33 antibody lintuzumab labeled with the alpha-particle emitter actinium-225. Its CD33 program is currently being studied in multiple Phase 1 clinical trials for targeting conditioning, in combinations and as a therapeutic in multiple diseases and indications including AML, MDS and MM.

Actinium is also developing its proprietary AWE or Antibody Warhead Enabling technology platform which utilizes radioisotopes including iodine-131 and the highly differentiated actinium-225 coupled with antibodies to target a variety of antigens that are expressed in hematological and solid tumor cancers. The AWE technology enables Actinium's internal pipeline and with the radioisotope Actinium-225 is being utilized in a collaborative research partnership with Astellas Pharma, Inc.   Actinium's clinical programs and AWE technology platform are covered by a portfolio of over 75 patents covering composition of matter, formulations, methods of use and also methods of manufacturing the radioisotope Actinium-225 in a cyclotron.

More information is available at www.actiniumpharma.com and our Twitter feed @ActiniumPharma, www.twitter.com/actiniumpharma.

Forward-Looking Statements for Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 

This press release may contain projections or other "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe-harbor" provisions of the private securities litigation reform act of 1995 regarding future events or the future financial performance of the Company which the Company undertakes no obligation to update. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from the anticipated or estimated future results, including the risks and uncertainties associated with preliminary study results varying from final results, estimates of potential markets for drugs under development, clinical trials, actions by the FDA and other governmental agencies, regulatory clearances, responses to regulatory matters, the market demand for and acceptance of Actinium's products and services, performance of clinical research organizations and other risks detailed from time to time in Actinium's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), including without limitation its most recent annual report on form 10-K, subsequent quarterly reports on Forms 10-Q and Forms 8-K, each as amended and supplemented from time to time.

Contact:

Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Steve O'Loughlin
Principal Financial Officer
soloughlin@actiniumpharma.com

SOURCE Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

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