Company announcement, January 3, 2022 at 02:00 AM (EST) / 07:00 AM (GMT) / 09:00 AM (EET)
Faron Pharmaceuticals Ltd (AIM: FARN, First North: FARON), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on building the future of immunotherapy by harnessing the power of the immune system to tackle cancer and inflammation, is pleased to announce the appointment of Marie-Louise Fjällskog, M.D., Ph.D., as Chief Medical Officer of the Company. Dr. Fjällskog will be based in Boston, MA and her appointment is effective immediately.
Dr. Fjällskog has over 30 years of experience in clinical oncology, translational research, and drug development. She joins Faron from Sensei Biotherapeutics (SNSE), a Nasdaq listed immuno-oncology focused biopharmaceutical company. As Chief Medical Officer at Sensei, she was responsible for leading clinical and development strategy and operations. She also played a key role in Sensei’s successful $152 million IPO, which closed in February 2021. Dr. Fjällskog holds both a Ph.D and an M.D. from Uppsala University, Sweden where she currently serves as an Associate Professor of Oncology.
In her new role, Dr. Fjällskog will join Faron’s management team and provide leadership and direction in accelerating the Company’s clinical development programs. Her primary focus will be bexmarilimab, Faron’s wholly owned, novel precision cancer immunotherapy candidate currently in development as a potential monotherapy in patients with solid tumors. Faron is also advancing plans to study bexmarilimab in the neoadjuvant setting, in combination with checkpoint inhibitors and as a treatment for hematological malignancies.
“I am delighted to welcome Marie-Louise to Faron as our Chief Medical Officer during what is a critical time for the Company as we accelerate the execution of our ambitious clinical development programs, including our lead oncology asset bexmarilimab,” said Dr. Markku Jalkanen, Chief Executive Officer of Faron. “With her extensive experience in oncology clinical development she is expertly positioned to help advance our plans and progress development of what we hope will be the first macrophage-targeting immunotherapy for patients with hard-to-treat cancers.”
“Faron’s novel immunotherapy program has the potential to usher in a new era of cancer treatment by unlocking the myeloid cell produced “hide me” signal and igniting immune response in indications that have proven to be resistant to current checkpoint inhibitor therapies,” said Marie-Louise Fjällskog M.D., Ph.D. “I am thrilled to be joining the Company at such an exciting time and look forward to helping accelerate the development of bexmarilimab as both a monotherapy and in combination with other checkpoint inhibitors, which is likely to further amplify the clinical benefit seen with bexmarilimab alone.”
Prior to her role at Sensei Biotherapeutics, Dr. Fjällskog served as Vice President, Clinical Development at Merus (MRUS) and Infinity Pharmaceuticals (INFI) where she led development of multiple small molecule and immunotherapy clinical programs and was responsible for the prioritization of preclinical research. She was formerly Global Clinical Program Leader at the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research where she led global development of oncology treatments targeting CDK4/6, BCL-2, PD-1, CSF-1 and CD73. Dr. Fjällskog also serves on the Board of Biovica, a Swedish biotech company with a vision to improve monitoring and predicting the efficacy of cancer therapies via novel blood-based diagnostics and Lytix Biopharma, a clinical stage biotech developing novel cancer immunotherapies based on pioneering research in “host defense peptides” – nature’s first line of defense towards foreign pathogens.
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