Ex-Novartis AG Exec to Take the Reins at Bay Area's Forty Seven on May 1

Ex-Novartis AG Exec to Take the Reins at Bay Area's Forty Seven on May 1 March 21, 2017
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

Forty Seven Inc., headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif., announced that Mark McCamish will take over as president and chief executive officer on May 1.

Forty Seven announced on February 24, 2016, that it had completed the first half of a $75 million Series A financing round, which basically launched the company. It had also licensed the rights to over 100 immuno-oncology programs from Stanford University.

The financing round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sutter Hill Ventures. Clarus Ventures and GV (Google Ventures) participated.

Forty Seven’s lead molecule is Hu5F9-G4, a humanized monoclonal antibody against human CD47. CD47 is overexpressed on the surface of most tumors and transmits what the company refers to as a “don’t eat me” signal. This allows cancer cells to avoid being engulfed and destroyed by macrophages, components of the human immune system.

The outgoing chief executive is Jonathan MacQuitty, a former partner at Abingworth and former chief executive officer of GenPharma. He is currently a Venture Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, and plans to remain on Forty Seven’s board of directors.

“Basically,” MacQuitty told BioSpace late last year, “we’re getting the adaptive immune system to recognize and attack tumors. There are different approaches, but they’re all modulated through T-cells, or occasionally B-cells. There’s a parallel immune system that’s adapted by another white blood cell called a macrophage. A macrophage is sort of like Pac-Man. They go around the body engulfing and eating bad cells.”

McCamish was most recently Global Head of Biopharmaceutical Development at Sandoz, a Novartis company. He has also had executive positions at Abbott Labs , Amgen , and PDL Biopharma.

“Forty Seven has made unprecedented progress to date based on the remarkable science initiated by the world-class efforts of Dr. Irv Weissman and Dr. Ravi Majeti and their combined team at Stanford University,” said McCamish in a statement. “In addition, Jonathan MacQuitty has assembled an amazing team at the company. Forty Seven’s technology provides a unique opportunity to harness the power of the innate immune system to help patients defeat their own cancer.”

On October 13, 2016, Forty Seven inked a strategic manufacturing agreement for the clinical supply of the company’s therapeutic antibodies with Switzerland-based Lonza. Lonza handled the company’s cell-line development for Hu5F9-G4. Under this deal, Lonza will optimize the process for the production of Hu5F9-G4 in a 1,000-liter single-use bioreactor.

“We are excited to enter into a multi-year agreement with Lonza to have them manufacture Hu5F9-G4 and other products in our pipeline,” MacQuitty said in a statement at the time. “Our partnership with Lonza in developing the cell line and the production process has been instrumental for us, and we are very pleased to have Lonza’s continued commitment to aid the development of Forty Seven’s programs.”

Late in 2016, Craig Gibbs, the company’s chief business officer, told BioSpace, “Forty Seven is exquisitely focused on executing its clinical trials in oncology and building its operational infrastructure. It is in the process of prioritizing which other indications to pursue, selecting compounds for these indications and determining whether to pursue these opportunities alone or with a partner.”

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