Gamida Cell Announces Appointment of Julian Adams, Ph.D. and Kenneth I. Moch to its Board of Directors

JERUSALEM, September 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Gamida Cell, a leader in cellular and immune therapies for the treatment of cancer and orphan genetic diseases, today announced the appointment of Julian Adams, Ph.D., and Kenneth I. Moch to its Board of Directors.

"We are pleased to welcome Julian and Ken to our Board as we approach the start of the Phase 3 study of our lead product NiCord^® for high risk blood cancers, and prepare for product commercialization. Both have decades of experience in guiding late stage companies through clinical development and market launches as well as helping them to devise and steer corporate, regulatory and financial strategies. We believe their insights and overall contributions will be invaluable as we continue to grow our organization and advance our product pipeline," said Mr. Ruben Krupik, Gamida Cell Chairman of the Board.

Dr. Adams has more than 30 years of experience in drug discovery and development with a strong focus on cancer. He currently serves as president of research and development at Infinity Pharmaceuticals, where he is responsible for the full spectrum of drug discovery, preclinical and clinical development, and regulatory affairs activities. Prior to joining Infinity in 2003, Dr. Adams was the senior vice president of drug discovery and development at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he headed multiple global drug discovery and development programs, including the successful Velcade^® (bortezomib) program. Dr. Adams also held senior positions in research and development at LeukoSite (acquired by Millennium) and at ProScript, as well as in medicinal chemistry at Boehringer Ingelheim, where he is credited with discovering Viramune^® (nevirapine) for HIV. Dr. Adams has won many awards, holds 40+ patents and has authored more than 100 papers and book chapters in peer-reviewed journals. He earned a B.S. from McGill University and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also received a Doctor of Science, honoris causa, from McGill University in 2012.

"Gamida Cell is doing very important work in developing a novel graft modality for bone marrow transplantation in patients with high risk blood cancers and rare genetic diseases. I am delighted to be a part of its impressive team at this exciting time and to help push NiCord^® and other pipeline products, such as CordIn^®, through later stage clinical trials," said Dr. Adams.

Mr. Moch has more than 30 years of experience in building private and public life science companies. He currently serves as a Managing Partner of The Salutramed Group, where he provides strategic and tactical counsel to biotechnology and medical products companies. He spent most of his career building and leading pioneering life science companies, and has served as the president and CEO of Chimerix Inc. (antiviral therapeutics), Biomedical Enterprises (orthopedic implants), and Alteon Inc. (therapeutics for cardiovascular aging and diabetic complications). He was also CEO of Biocyte Corporation, where he pioneered the use of cord blood stem cells in transplantation therapy and launched the world's first cord blood cell bank. Earlier in his career Mr. Moch co-founded and served as the vice president of The Liposome Company, Inc. and served as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company. Mr. Moch currently sits on the Boards of Zynerba, Inc. and M2Gen, the personalized medicine subsidiary of the Moffitt Cancer Center, is a member of the New York University Working Group of Compassionate Use and Pre-Approval Access, and served for over a decade on the Board of the Biotechnology Innovation Association (BIO).  He holds an A.B. in biochemistry from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

"I have been very impressed by the dedicated and accomplished management and scientific teams at Gamida Cell. I am truly pleased to join the Board as Gamida Cell nears several important growth milestones associated with running later stage studies and as the company prepares for the market launch of NiCord," said Mr. Moch.

About Gamida Cell  

Gamida Cell is a world leader in cellular and immune therapies for the treatment of cancer and orphan genetic diseases. The company's pipeline of products are in development to treat a wide range of conditions including cancer, genetic hematological diseases such as sickle cell disease and thalassemia, bone marrow failure syndromes such as aplastic anemia, genetic metabolic diseases and refractory autoimmune diseases. Gamida Cell's current shareholders include Novartis, Elbit Imaging, Clal Biotechnology Industries, Israel Healthcare Venture, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Denali Ventures and Auriga Ventures. For more information please visit http://www.gamida-cell.com.

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SOURCE Gamida Cell