Genocea Biosciences Announces Promotion of Chip Clark to President and Chief Executive Officer

Genocea Biosciences Announces Promotion of Chip Clark to President and Chief Executive Officer
Appointment Positions Vaccine Company for Next Phase of Growth as it Prepares to Enter Clinic

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Genocea Biosciences Inc., a vaccine discovery and development company pioneering a new class of T cell-based vaccines, today announced the promotion of Chip Clark to president and chief executive officer. Mr. Clark joined Genocea as chief business officer in August 2010 and played a critical role in closing the company's $35 million round of Series B financing announced last month.

"Chip's appointment to president and chief executive officer reflects his impressive leadership and extensive corporate strategy experience, as well as his in-depth product development and commercial expertise. The board looks forward to working closely with Chip as Genocea enters its next phase of growth as a vaccine development company."
."In Chip's short time at Genocea, he has proven himself to be a tremendous asset to the company," said George Siber, M.D., executive chairman of Genocea's board of directors and scientific advisory board. "Chip's appointment to president and chief executive officer reflects his impressive leadership and extensive corporate strategy experience, as well as his in-depth product development and commercial expertise. The board looks forward to working closely with Chip as Genocea enters its next phase of growth as a vaccine development company."

"Genocea's innovative approach to vaccine discovery sets the company apart and positions the company to realize the promise of T cell-based vaccines," said Mr. Clark. "The company has made significant progress to date, including moving from program inception through antigen discovery, to demonstrating preclinical proof-of-concept in three major disease areas in less than three years. I am honored to lead the talented Genocea team in this new capacity as we advance our robust vaccine pipeline and prepare to enter the clinic with our lead program, a therapeutic vaccine for herpes simplex virus type 2."

Mr. Clark has more than 20 years of biotechnology and pharmaceutical experience with a focus on commercial, business development and venture capital financing. Prior to joining Genocea, he served as chief business officer at Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc., a biopharmaceutical company he co-founded in 2004. While at Vanda, he lead the company's strategic and business development activities, and played a central role in raising more than $220 million in multiple public and private financings. Prior to Vanda, Mr. Clark was a principal at Care Capital, LLC, a venture capital firm investing in biopharmaceutical companies. Additionally, he spent 10 years at SmithKline Beecham (now part of GlaxoSmithKline) in a variety of commercial roles. Mr. Clark holds a B.A. from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

About Genocea

Genocea Biosciences is a vaccine discovery and development company targeting major infectious diseases with high unmet medical needs, in which T cell response helps confer protection. The company's transformational discovery platform mines the natural immune response across diverse human populations in a way that radically reduces the risk, cost and time associated with antigen discovery. Genocea is currently developing vaccines for herpes simplex-2 (therapeutic and prophylactic), a sexually transmitted disease affecting roughly 15 percent of the U.S. population; Chlamydia trachomatis, a sexually transmitted disease agent causing an estimated 90 million cases worldwide; Streptococcus pneumoniae, the leading killer of children under the age of 5 worldwide; and Plasmodium falciparum (malaria), of which there are more than 100 million cases globally. Visit www.genocea.com for more information.