Immunitas Therapeutics Names Amanda Wagner as CEO

WALTHAM, Mass., Nov. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Immunitas Therapeutics ("Immunitas"), a single cell genomics-based therapeutics company, has named Amanda Wagner, MBA, to lead the company as the new chief executive officer. Wagner is a founding member of Immunitas and has made significant contributions to the company's business strategy and corporate development.

"Amanda's leadership has been central to Immunitas' success over the past two years. She has forged critical investor relationships and partner collaborations while driving the lead program and pipeline. I am thrilled she will lead Immunitas to grow the pipeline and organization," said Geeta Vemuri, Ph.D., MBA, founder of Agent Capital, and a member of the Immunitas Board of Directors, who led the company's Series B financing.

Jeffrey Goldberg, who has served as Immunitas CEO since December 2019, will remain with the company through the end of the year in an advisory role.

"I am honored to assume the role of CEO at Immunitas, and excited for the future of the company," said Wagner. "I am passionate about the Immunitas mission to discover, develop, and deliver novel immuno-oncology therapeutics to patients with cancer, and look forward to further growing our team and pipeline. As a company we are strongly positioned to have a meaningful impact on patients' lives. Echoing the sentiments of everyone at Immunitas, I thank Jeff for all he has done over the past two years to set us on a path for continued growth."

Wagner has more than 15 years of experience in drug discovery, drug development, and medical technology, and has led teams from discovery through clinical development of novel immune-modulating therapies. During her time at Immunitas, she has contributed to the company's fundraising efforts totaling nearly $100 million, led the structuring and negotiation of multiple strategic collaborations and driven the advancement of the lead asset IMT-009, a CD161 inhibitor, and robust pipeline based on the company's proprietary platform. Prior to joining Immunitas, she was vice president of corporate development at Q32 Bio, where she contributed to the company's $46 million Series A financing. Previously, Wagner was at Concert Pharmaceuticals, where she managed a $250 million asset sale, directly contributed to the Initial Public Offering, and identified and led the development of a preclinical therapeutic for autoimmune disease, now in Phase 3. Prior to Concert, Wagner was an early member of the team at UpToDate, Inc. Wagner also sits on the board of directors of the National Alopecia Areata Foundation.

"Amanda's appointment enables us to build on the company's successful foundation, to which she has been a significant contributor," said Kai Wucherpfennig, M.D., Ph.D., Immunitas scientific co-founder, as well as professor and chair of the Department of Cancer Immunology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. "With Amanda as CEO and Thomas Tan as chief scientific officer, we have a great leadership team in place to advance the science and develop novel therapeutics."

In September, Immunitas announced the appointment of Seng-Lai "Thomas" Tan, Ph.D., as the company's chief scientific officer. Dr. Tan has more than 20 years of therapeutic research experience in both large and small biopharmaceutical settings across different disease areas, including oncology, infectious disease, and autoimmunity. He also has broad expertise in various modalities spanning monoclonal and bispecific antibodies, small molecules, and cell-penetrating peptides. The company is also growing rapidly and recently added Ming "Tommy" Tang to lead computational biology.

About Immunitas Therapeutics
Immunitas is a single cell genomics-based therapeutics company focused on immunology that is advancing multiple programs to the clinic. Immunitas' programs are derived from their platform, a cross-functional, highly integrated, single cell genomics approach that enables rapid target identification and validation in parallel with antibody discovery and engineering. IMT-009, a first-in-class T cell and NK cell modulator targeting CD161, is being developed for the treatment of solid tumors and hematological malignancies. Immunitas is also advancing IMT-073, a dual-target NK and T cell modulator. The company was founded by Longwood Fund with leading scientists from Dana-Farber, MGH, the Broad, and MIT. Since being founded in 2019, Immunitas has raised a total of $97 million in venture funding from a strong syndicate of investors including Agent Capital, Alexandria Venture Investments, Evotec, Leaps by Bayer, Longwood Fund, M Ventures, Medical Excellence Capital, and Novartis Venture Fund. To learn more, visit www.immunitastx.com. 

SOURCE Immunitas Therapeutics, Inc.