Immuneering Appoints Leah R. Neufeld as Chief People Officer
Immuneering Corporation (Nasdaq: IMRX) has appointed Leah R. Neufeld as Chief People Officer, a newly created position, effective immediately. Neufeld brings extensive experience from her previous roles at Luzsana Biotechnology and Prevail Therapeutics. CEO Ben Zeskind emphasized her leadership skills and expertise in enhancing company culture and attracting top talent. Immuneering focuses on developing medicines for patients with solid tumors driven by RAS mutations and MAPK pathway activations, leveraging its proprietary bioinformatics platform.
- Appointment of Leah R. Neufeld as Chief People Officer is expected to strengthen company culture and talent acquisition.
- Neufeld's extensive experience in human resources in the life sciences could positively impact Immuneering's growth.
- Management change may lead to concerns about continuity and experience gaps during the transitional phase.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Immuneering Corporation (Nasdaq: IMRX), a biopharmaceutical company that aims to create medicines for all patients with solid tumors driven by RAS mutations and other MAPK pathway activation events, today announced the appointment of Leah R. Neufeld to the newly created position of Chief People Officer, effective immediately.
“Our world-class team of Immuneers enables us to accomplish great things, and in Leah we now have a Chief People Officer worthy of our people,” stated Ben Zeskind, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Immuneering. “Leah is a seasoned human resources leader with decades of experience in the life sciences industry. We welcome her and look forward to leveraging her expertise to continue making Immuneering a great place for every Immuneer to work and to grow, and to help add additional top talent to our team.”
"Immuneering is a dynamic company utilizing a proprietary, novel, translational bioinformatics platform approach to drug development and I look forward to supporting the company's growth during this critical time, as we transition from preclinical development into human clinical trials," noted Ms. Neufeld.
Ms. Neufeld joins Immuneering from Luzsana Biotechnology, where, since August 2021, she served as Chief Human Resources Officer, and as part of the executive team, helped establish Luzsana globally as a subsidiary of Hengrui Medicines, the largest Pharma company in China. Previously, she was the Vice President, People, at Prevail Therapeutics, from 2019 and following its acquisition by Eli Lilly in 2021. Prior to that, from 2015 through 2019, Ms. Neufeld was the Head of Human Resources at Intercept Pharmaceuticals. Before that, she was the Global Head of Human Resources for NPS Pharma until it was acquired by Shire Pharmaceuticals in 2015. From 2009 to 2014, she held positions of increasing responsibility at Daiichi Sankyo Pharma Development, most recently serving as Director of Human Resources. Earlier in her career, from 2002 to 2009, she held various human resources positions at Johnson & Johnson, including Manager of Human Resources in the consumer division and its oncology company called Ortho Biotech.
Ms. Neufeld earned a B.A. in psychology from the American University and an M.S. in career counseling and organization development from Johns Hopkins University.
About Immuneering Corporation
Immuneering aims to create medicines for all patients with solid tumors driven by RAS mutations and other MAPK pathway activation events. Immuneering has more than a decade of experience applying translational bioinformatics to generate insights into drug mechanism of action and patient treatment response. Building on this experience, Immuneering's disease-agnostic discovery platform enables the company to create product candidates based on 1) biological insights that are both counterintuitive and deeply rooted in data, and 2) novel chemistry. Immuneering's lead product candidate, IMM-1-104, aims to achieve pan-RAS activity that selectively impacts cancer cells to a greater extent than healthy cells. IMM-1-104 is designed to be a highly selective third generation dual MEK inhibitor that modulates the signaling dynamics of the MAPK pathway by driving deep cyclic inhibition that deprives tumor cells of the sustained proliferative signaling required for rapid growth, while providing a cadenced, normalized level of signaling designed to spare healthy cells. IMM-1-104 is being developed to treat advanced solid tumors in patients harboring RAS mutations, and is translationally guided by Immuneering's proprietary, human-aligned 3D tumor modeling platform combined with patient-aligned bioinformatics. In addition to the Phase 1 ready IMM-1-104 drug program, Immuneering is currently evaluating IMM-6-415 in IND-enabling studies. The earlier Immuneering drug discovery pipeline includes five additional oncology programs as well as two neuroscience programs.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes certain disclosures that contain "forward-looking statements," including, without limitation, statements regarding Immuneering’s expectations regarding the treatment potential of IMM-1-104 and IMM-6-415, the timing of commencement and enrollment of the Phase 1/2a clinical trial for IMM-1-104, the design, enrollment criteria and conduct of the Phase 1/2a clinical trial, the timing of submission of the IND and commencement of clinical trials for IMM-6-415 and Immuneering’s ability to advance its pipeline and further diversify its portfolio and make progress towards its longstanding goal of creating better medicines for cancer patients. Forward-looking statements are based on Immuneering’s current expectations and are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include, but are not limited to, the risks inherent in oncology and neuroscience drug development, including target discovery, target validation, lead compound identification, lead compound optimization, preclinical studies and clinical trials. These and other risks and uncertainties are described more fully in the section titled "Risk Factors" in Immuneering’s most recent Form 10-Q filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are made as of this date, and Immuneering undertakes no duty to update such information except as required under applicable law.
Corporate Contact:
Rebecca Kusko, Ph.D.
Immuneering Corporation
617-500-8080
rkusko@immuneering.com
Investor Contact:
Susan A. Noonan
S.A. Noonan Communications
917-513-5303
susan@sanoonan.com
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