PACT Pharma Announces Planned Retirement of CEO Alex Franzusoff; Veteran Biotech Executive Scott Garland Named as Successor

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., March 5, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- PACT Pharma, Inc., a clinical-stage company pioneering individualized, non-viral precision genome engineered, tumor-specific T cell therapies for the treatment of patients with solid tumors, today announced the appointment of Scott Garland as Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Garland assumes the CEO role effective today, succeeding Alex Franzusoff, Ph.D., who will be staying with the company through mid-year in an advisory role to support the transition.

"With its cell therapy in clinical trials, PACT is working to rapidly bring its personalized adoptive T cell therapies to patients in need," said Blake Byers, Ph.D., chairman of PACT's board and general partner at GV. "As the company's pipeline progresses, we are committed to adding key competencies to our longstanding strengths in research and development, and Scott's experience leading the commercial launches of multiple novel therapies will be important for PACT. We thank Alex for his many contributions to the company over the last four years, particularly in guiding the company into clinical development, and wish him the best in his retirement."

Mr. Garland was formerly CEO of Portola Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Alexion in 2020 for $1.4 billion. At Portola, he led the company through the commercial launch of Andrexxa^®, a novel reversal agent for factor Xa inhibitors. Before joining Portola, Mr. Garland held leadership roles at multiple pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. At Relypsa, he served first as chief commercial officer, then as president overseeing the U.S. commercial launch of Veltassa^® for the treatment of hyperkalemia. Prior to Relypsa, Mr. Garland spent three years as chief commercial officer at Exelixis where he built the company's commercial organization, transitioning Exelixis from a development-stage to a commercial-stage company with the launch of cabozantinib in medullary thyroid cancer. He also spent nine years at Genentech, where he led the commercial franchises for two multi-billion dollar therapies – Avastin^® and Rituxan^®. Mr. Garland received a Bachelor of Science degree from California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo and a Master's degree in business administration from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

"I am honored and privileged to join PACT – and its world class team – at this important moment in the company's growth," said Mr. Garland. "PACT is well positioned to be a leader in developing personalized anti-cancer T cell therapies against solid tumors. I appreciate the work that Alex has done to build PACT into a clinical-stage biotechnology company and I am delighted at the opportunity to help the company in its efforts to advance cell therapies to benefit patients with solid tumors."  

"I am very proud of the landmark achievements and progress that the PACT team has made over the past four years in advancing our personalized adoptive T cell therapies, including launching our current clinical program across multiple solid tumor types," said Dr. Franzusoff. "I am confident that the company is in excellent hands under Scott's leadership."

About PACT Pharma 

PACT Pharma is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering individualized, non-viral precision genome engineered, tumor-specific T cell therapies for the treatment of patients with solid tumors. PACT Pharma is now enrolling patients in its first-in-human Phase 1 clinical trial. Each person's cancer emerges with a private signature of mutations. PACT Pharma identifies these cancer mutation targets (neoantigens) for each person, biochemically verifies and captures T cells from their blood and uses its proprietary, cutting edge (non-viral) precision genome engineering technologies to manufacture a personalized immune cell therapy product for each person with cancer.

For more information please visit www.pactpharma.com.

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SOURCE PACT Pharma

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