AbGenomics Holding Inc. www.abgenomics.com, a clinical stage biotech company, has announced that Founder/CEO Dr. Ron RH Lin, who has been leading AbGenomics for nearly two decades, has decided to step down from the CEO role, and will continue to serve as Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Judy Chou will assume the President and Chief Executive Officer role on January 1, 2020. She will also serve on the company’s Board of Directors. Dr. Chou is joining AbGenomics from Bayer Pharmaceuticals, where she has been Senior Vice President and Global Head of Biotech and, concurrently, Site Head of Berkeley, California, since early 2017. In this role, Dr. Chou is accountable for biologics manufacturing and development as well as pipeline development. She also serves as a member of Board of Directors of Biocom, Advisory Board of U.C. Berkeley College of Engineering, and Advisory Board of Silicon Valley Women in Engineering. With her many accomplishments, she was named one of The Most Influential Women in Business in the Bay Area in 2018 by San Francisco Business Times.
"We thank Ron for his enormous contributions to AbGenomics over the past two decades as our founder/CEO. I am very excited to welcome Judy on board as our new CEO. Judy’s vast experience across global, complex biologics areas, and particularly in monoclonal antibodies and their derivatives, will serve AbGenomics well. She is a well-recognized people and scientific leader who will build upon the entrepreneurial spirit of AbGenomics – and take the company to the next level of excellent performance and accomplishments.” said Dr. Patrick Y. Yang, Chairman of AbGenomics. “Judy’s extensive science and biotechnology background as well as her business skills will most definitely accelerate AbGenomics’ development of both its promising product candidates and technology platforms for a better, healthier tomorrow.”
“I am very excited to be joining the AbGenomics team. The vision of transformational, innovative drug development – and of curing immunological diseases and cancer – is one that I am extremely passionate about. I look forward to working with the many talented individuals in this organization, as we develop new classes of biologics and bring forward important, life-saving therapies.” said Dr. Judy Chou.
Dr. Chou has a long successful track record in the biopharmaceutical research, development and manufacturing for over 25 years. Before joining Bayer, she was the Vice President, Pharmaceutical/Technical Operations of Medivation, Inc. (acquired by Pfizer). Prior to that, she was the Vice President, Research/Development and Manufacturing at Tanvex Biopharma Inc. and La Jolla Biologics, Inc. In her earlier career, Dr. Chou held multiple positions with increasing level of responsibilities in research and development at Genentech, Wyeth Biopharma, and Abbott Bioresearch Center.
Dr. Chou is a graduate of College of Medicine, National Taiwan University. She earned her Ph.D. at Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Yale University. She was a member of the Research Fellow Faculty, Department of Cell Biology, Harvard University Medical School, and was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany.
AbGenomics Holding Inc. (www.abgenomics.com)
AbGenomics is a privately held biotechnology company headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area that is focused on developing novel antibody therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and immune inflammatory diseases with high unmet medical needs. Based on unique insights into immune tolerance and epitope dominance sciences, AbGenomics’ pipeline includes two clinical stage product candidates: (i), AbGn-168H (Neihulizumab) an immune checkpoint agonist antibody targeting PSGL-1/CD162 that depletes unwanted activated T cells with proof of concept/proof of mechanism in four autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, and (ii), an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) that employs a unique linker, targets a gastrointestinal tumor selective antigen, and has demonstrated proof of concept in gastrointestinal tumors. AbGn-168H has demonstrated clinical proof of efficacy and safety with >100 patients in psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, both of which are established T cell mediated diseases. The product candidate is currently in Phase 2 studies for the treatment of biologics refractory ulcerative colitis and in proof of concept study for the treatment of steroid refractory acute GvHD, with encouraging results in patients that are refractive to approved therapies. AbGn-107 consists of a humanized antibody conjugated to dolastatin-10 through an enzyme cleavable novel hydrophilic self-immolative linker with encouraging results in chemo-refractory gastric, pancreatic, colorectal and biliary cancers. AbGn-107 recognizes a GI tumor-selective glycol-variant of CD71 but does not bind to normal tissues beyond the apical/lumen surface of GI and related secretory ducts which are not accessible to circulating antibody. A Companion Diagnostic is available to identify tumors with CD71 glycovariant expression.
Note on Forward-Looking Statements
Statements made in this news release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as expects, believes, intends, and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statement. Specifically, there are a number of important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated, such as the Company's ability to raise additional capital, and risks related to the Company's ability to initiate, and enroll patients in, planned clinical trials. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or developments, except as required by law.
