BURLINGAME, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Humanigen, Inc. (HGEN) (Humanigen), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on preventing and treating cytokine release syndrome (CRS) with lenzilumab, the companys proprietary Humaneered anti-human granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) monoclonal antibody, today announced the appointment of Bob Atwill, MBA, to the newly created role of Head of Asia-Pacific, effective immediately. Mr. Atwill will report to Dr. Cameron Durrant, Chief Executive Officer of Humanigen, and will initially serve on a consultancy basis.

Mr. Atwill has more than 30 years of experience in the global healthcare industry across the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and cellular therapy sectors. He began his career at GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi-Synthlabo prior to holding senior executive and consulting roles at Mesoblast, Benitec Biopharma and a number of other US, European and Australian-listed biotechnology companies. He currently serves as Principal at Eaton Square, a cross-border M&A and capital service provider, in its biotechnology practice, based in the Melbourne office. Mr. Atwill received his MBA from Ashridge Management College in the UK and has participated in Executive/President programs at Yale University and UCLA.

We have several partner-funded clinical trials either underway or in late-stage planning in Australia. Bobs business development and clinical trial expertise, coupled with his deep industry network and relationships with multiple leading hospitals, make him ideally suited to build on our existing work and to help us evaluate and pursue potential strategic partnerships in the region, said Dr. Durrant. Bob has worked in COVID-19 and other virology areas, graft-versus-host disease, immuno-oncology and cell and gene therapy with leading companies, and we believe his scientific and market understanding will be valuable to Humanigens strategic long-term and global growth.

Mr. Atwill said, There has never been a more important time to rapidly commercialize valuable technologies in the healthcare and biotechnology industry, especially those that will have the potential to play a critical role in mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. I am honoured to assist in progressing lenzilumab and the Humanigen pipeline in Australia and more broadly across the Asia-Pacific Region.

About Humanigen, Inc.

Humanigen, Inc. is developing its portfolio of clinical and pre-clinical therapies for the treatment of cancers and infectious diseases via its novel, cutting-edge GM-CSF neutralization and gene-knockout platforms. We believe that our GM-CSF neutralization and gene-editing platform technologies have the potential to reduce the inflammatory cascade associated with coronavirus infection. The companys immediate focus is to prevent or minimize the cytokine release syndrome that precedes severe lung dysfunction and ARDS in serious cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The company is also focused on creating next-generation combinatory gene-edited CAR-T therapies using strategies to improve efficacy while employing GM-CSF gene knockout technologies to control toxicity. In addition, the company is developing its own portfolio of proprietary first-in-class EphA3-CAR-T for various solid cancers and EMR1-CAR-T for various eosinophilic disorders. The company is also exploring the effectiveness of its GM-CSF neutralization technologies (either through the use of lenzilumab as a neutralizing antibody or through GM-CSF gene knockout) in combination with other CAR-T, bispecific or natural killer (NK) T cell engaging immunotherapy treatments to break the efficacy/toxicity linkage, including to prevent and/or treat graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) in patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Additionally, Humanigen and Kite, a Gilead Company, are evaluating lenzilumab in combination with Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel) in patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma in a clinical collaboration. For more information, visit http://www.humanigen.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements reflect management's current knowledge, assumptions, judgment and expectations regarding future performance or events. Although management believes that the expectations reflected in such statements are reasonable, they give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct and you should be aware that actual events or results may differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Words such as "will," "expect," "intend," "plan," "potential," "possible," "goals," "accelerate," "continue," and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding our expectations surrounding our operational, research, development or commercialization activities in the Asia Pacific region, and our ability to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 via any of the technologies in our current pipeline. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, the risks inherent in our lack of profitability and need for additional capital to conduct the Phase III study and grow our business; our dependence on partners to further the development of our product candidates; the uncertainties inherent in the development and launch of any new pharmaceutical product; the outcome of pending or future litigation; and the various risks and uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors" sections and elsewhere in the Company's periodic and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary notice. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.

Read more:
Humanigen Appoints Bob Atwill as Head of Asia-Pacific Region - Business Wire