ImmunoCellular Therapeutics Announces New President and Chief Executive Officer
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ImmunoCellular Therapeutics, Ltd. (OTCBB:IMUC) (“IMUCâ€) announced today that Manish Singh, Ph.D., MBA has taken on the full-time position of President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company.
Prior to joining IMUC, Dr. Singh was a Director of California Technology Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm in Pasadena, California from June 2003 to December 2007. During his tenure at California Technology Ventures, Dr. Singh directed co-lead investments by that firm in several life sciences companies, including Aliva Biopharmaceuticals, SurgRx, Vivant Medical, Angioscore and Ceregene. He also acted as the interim CEO of Aliva Biopharmaceuticals, a human monoclonal antibody production company focused on creating a greater diversity of antibodies, and was a board member or observer for several companies, including Aliva, Angioscore and Ceregene.
Before joining California Technology Ventures, Dr. Singh spent 14 years in various scientific and managerial positions in research, product development, manufacturing, and business development at Genetic Therapy, Inc. (acquired by Novartis Pharmaceuticals), Chiron Corporation, and Cell Genesys, where he was responsible for the process development, scale-up, technology transfer, and manufacturing of several gene therapy products. During this time he worked on a number of preclinical and clinical programs in oncology and hemophilia.
Dr. Singh holds ten issued patents and patent applications, and has been an invited speaker at several national and international conferences on gene therapy, cell therapy and drug delivery. Dr. Singh received his BS in Chemical Engineering from IIT (Roorkee, India), MS in Chemical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and his Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and did his post-doctoral work at the American Red Cross in Biomedical Sciences. He also received his MBA at the Anderson School at UCLA, where he was a Deutschman Venture Fellow and a Patrick J. Welsh Entrepreneurship Fellow.
Dr. John Yu, Chairman of the Board, stated, “We are fortunate to have Dr. Singh take on the role of President and CEO for IMUC. He is a seasoned professional with knowledge of capital raising and product development.â€
Dr. Singh is enthusiastic about IMUC’s technology. “The cellular and antibody technology platforms at IMUC utilizing both arms of the immune system to potentially treat cancer make it an exciting company in our fight against this disease. I am highly pleased to work with someone like Dr. John Yu, who is a leader in the development of dendritic vaccines for glioblastoma and has additional technologies at IMUC in the cancer stem cell area, which is really a new and exciting frontier,†Dr. Singh continued. “The position of President and Chief Executive Officer of IMUC is an outstanding opportunity to lead a company with a promising future,†said Dr. Singh. “I look forward to advancing our strong pipeline of potential products through the clinic and into the market and to communicating with our shareholders and the investment community as we progress.â€
About ImmunoCellular Therapeutics
IMUC is a Los Angeles, California based development stage company that will seek to develop cellular and antibody therapies for the treatment of brain and other cancers. IMUC's initial focus has been on a dendritic cell-based vaccine for treating brain tumors, with a Phase I trial for its lead vaccine product candidate having commenced in May 2007.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including without limitation the ability to retain and recruit senior management personnel, the need for substantial additional capital to fund development of product candidates beyond their initial clinical or pre-clinical stages and the risks associated with pre-clinical and clinical development of product candidates. Additional risks and uncertainties are described in IMUC's most recently filed SEC documents, such as its most recent annual report on Form 10-KSB, all quarterly reports on Form 10-QSB and any current reports on Form 8-K. IMUC undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.