Immorna Biotherapeutics Expands Its R&D Footprint in RTP, NC and Appoints Key Senior Scientific Leaders

RALEIGH, N.C., Jan. 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Immorna Biotherapeutics, Inc, an immune-oncology drug and viral vaccine development company with both proprietary self-replicating mRNA and conventional (non-replicating) mRNA technologies expands its R&D footprint in the US. Today, Immorna announces appointment of Drs. NgocDiep Le, Jeffrey Ulmer, Marcin Bugno, Lan Feng, and Mr. Jeffrey Carey to key roles, strengthening its exiting strong leadership team.

"Our RNA Encodes Innovation. Since its founding, Immorna has established robust processes that can efficiently and consistently produce high quality and potent self-replicating and conventional mRNA. Immorna has also developed an arsenal of different mRNA delivery vehicles, including thermal-stable ones. With several of our programs under regulatory filing, Immorna is quickly transitioning into a clinical stage company. In the meanwhile, our GMP pilot plant has built up capability to produce sufficient clinical trial materials for supporting large scale trials," said Zihao Wang, PhD, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Immorna, "the R&D presence in RTP, NC will further drive our innovation in new mRNA modalities and delivery vehicles, and diversify the applications of our platform technology by advancing more drug candidates into clinical development. Today, I am extremely excited to announce the strong addition to our scientific leadership team. With no doubt, these talented and experienced drug developers will jumpstart our R&D operation in RTP, NC and help expand our pipelines in the near future." 

NgocDiep Le, MD. PhD. will serve as Immorna's Global Chief Medical Officer.

"mRNA is a promising platform technology that has the potential to serve as an alternative or even superior to traditional recombinant protein-based therapies. With its unique technologies in self-replicating and conventional mRNA, Immorna positions itself well in both the therapeutics and viral vaccine fields. I am extremely excited to join Immorna and look forward to working with our talented team members in developing life-saving medicines and vaccines for patients in dire needs," said Dr. NgocDiep Le.

Dr. Le brings to Immorna over 20 years of drug development experience across early-to-late phases of oncology clinical development. She is a senior medical oncologist, physician-scientist, and business executive with a track record of success in bringing innovative medicines to patients. She possesses extensive drug development experience in the US and globally throughout her tenure, achieving multiple successful IND and NDA/BLA submissions. Prior to joining Immorna, Dr. Le served as CMO at NeolmmuneTech and Verastem. Previously, she held executive positions with increasing responsibilities at Medlmmune/AstraZeneca, Novartis, GSK and Amgen.  Dr. Le received her BS in Biology from the California Institute of Technology and earned her MD/PhD degrees from Stanford University School of Medicine. She completed a Medical Oncology Fellowship at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. Jeffrey Ulmer will serve as Immorna's Chief Scientific Advisor.

"Immorna's approach to applying the self-replicating mRNA (srRNA) technology to developing immune-oncology drugs can realize the full potential of srRNA well beyond infectious diseases," said Dr. Ulmer, "I am excited to join the talented team at Immorna and look forward to applying my experience in RNA replicon and viral vaccine development to help advance the diverse pipeline at Immorna."  Jeffrey has over 30 years of preclinical research and early development experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. He is one of the pioneers in developing the self-replicating mRNA technology for vaccines against viral infectious diseases. Prior to joining Immorna, Jeffrey Ulmer was Head of Preclinical R&D at GSK Vaccines US; Global Head of External Research and Site Head of US Vaccines Research at Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics; Head of Immunology and Cell Biology at Chiron Corporation; Senior Research Fellow at Merck Research Laboratories. He holds a PhD in Biochemistry from McGill University and completed his Postdoctoral Fellowship at Yale University.

Dr. Marcin Bugno will serve as Vice President of RNA Development.

"I am thrilled to join Immorna Biotherapeutics. I am amazed by what Immorna has accomplished in the past years and very impressed by Immorna's diverse pipeline. I believe the company's unique platforms in both mRNA and delivery vehicles give Immorna a distinct competitive advantage in the rapidly evolving fields of mRNA-based vaccines and therapeutics. I look forward to contributing to Immorna's long term success," said Dr. Bugno. Marcin has nearly 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, including 7 years directly related to mRNA research and process development. Prior to joining Immorna, Marcin was Senior Director of Analytical and Process Development at Istari Oncology; Director of Drug Substance, Technical R&D at GSK Vaccines US; Senior Manager and Senior Scientist at Novartis Vaccines, US. He holds a PhD degree in Biochemistry from Jagiellonian University and completed his post-doctoral training at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Mr. Jeffrey Carey will serve as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs.

Mr. Jeffrey Carey is a successful senior executive with over 25 years of Regulatory Affairs management experience in development of a variety of biopharmaceutical products such as vaccines, cell and gene therapies, immunotherapeutics, and small molecule drugs.  Jeffrey has an established track record representing organizations to regulatory authorities both in the US and throughout the world.  Jeffrey's areas of expertise include regulatory strategy, interaction with health authorities, and directing quality submissions including INDs and BLAs/NDAs.  His experience also includes achieving designations for orphan products, breakthrough and fast-track indications, and a rare pediatric priority review voucher.  Jeffrey worked with products ranging from early development to the approval stage and beyond into post-marketing and lifecycle management.  Most recently, Mr. Carey served as Executive Director, Head of Regulatory Affairs at NeoImmuneTech (NIT), where he developed regulatory strategies as well as managing several teams that generated successful IND and CTA submissions; Global Regulatory Affairs Leader for GSK Vaccines, where he worked on defining strategies for the self-amplifying mRNA based early programs of the US Vaccine Discovery Group.  Additionally, Mr. Carey held senior Regulatory Affairs positions at companies such as Altimmune, Wellstat Therapeutics, Sucampo Pharma, Novavax, ICON, and Novartis during his long industry tenure. 

Dr. Lan Feng will serve as Senior Director of RNA Delivery and Formulation.

Dr. Feng has over 10 years of professional experience in pharmaceutical research and development including direct experience with mRNA CMC development. Lan brings deep knowledge of formulation/drug product (DP) development across different phases of drug development. Lan specializes in protein and nucleic acid drug formulation and process development. Prior to joining Immorna, Dr. Feng was Associate Director, DP Development at Seqirus CSL; Senior Scientist of Formulation Development at Alcami Corporation and Eisai Inc. Lan holds a PhD in Molecular Pharmaceutics from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

About Immorna

Immorna is a fast-growing biotech company that focuses on developing self-replicating and conventional mRNA-based therapeutics and vaccines. Since its founding, Immorna has built a robust CMC platform for mRNA synthesis, purification, and analytical testing that is well suited for clinical and commercial development. In addition, with its state-of-the-art screening tools Immorna has developed an arsenal of mRNA delivery vehicles including polymers and lipid nanoparticles featuring multiple proprietary ionizable cationic lipids suitable for intramuscular, intravenous or tissue-targeting delivery. Immorna has a diverse pipeline spanning cancer immunotherapy, infectious diseases, rare genetic diseases, and cosmetology.

Immorna's footprint includes Hangzhou and Shanghai in China, and RTP, NC in the US.

SOURCE Immorna