Immuneering Appoints Rimma Steinhertz, Ph.D., PMP as Vice President, Project and Alliance Management
Immuneering Corporation (Nasdaq: IMRX) has appointed Rimma Steinhertz, Ph.D., PMP, as Vice President of Project and Alliance Management, effective immediately. Dr. Steinhertz brings extensive experience in oncology and neurology, previously holding leadership roles at Glenmark Pharmaceuticals and Merck. In her new role, she will work with the leadership team to advance the clinical trials of IMM-1-104, a selective dual-MEK inhibitor targeting RAS mutant tumors. The company's strategy includes collaborations to enhance treatment approaches.
- Appointment of Rimma Steinhertz brings extensive experience in oncology and neurology.
- Focus on advancing IMM-1-104 into clinical trials could enhance product pipeline.
- Dependence on a new executive might pose risks related to continuity and integration.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 03, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Immuneering Corporation (Nasdaq: IMRX), a biopharmaceutical company advancing a robust pipeline of oncology and neuroscience product candidates that are designed to uniquely disrupt cellular signaling dynamics, today announced the appointment of Rimma Steinhertz, Ph.D., PMP to the newly created position of Vice President, Project and Alliance Management, effective immediately. In this role, Dr. Steinhertz will focus on working with Immuneering's leadership team as it advances IMM-1-104 as a monotherapy into clinical trials in 2022 and working with potential future partners to advance combination approaches with IMM-1-104 in select patient populations.
“Rimma is a highly accomplished program leader and project manager with decades of experience in preclinical and clinical development for oncology and neurology,” stated Ben Zeskind, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Immuneering. “We welcome Rimma to the team and look forward to leveraging her broad expertise, deep knowledge of best practices in project management for pharmaceutical R&D, and industry relationships as we steadily advance our robust pipeline of novel product candidates, including IMM-1-104.”
"Immuneering is employing a novel, differentiated approach to drug development and I look forward to supporting the company's commitment to operational excellence as it transitions from preclinical development into human clinical trials," noted Dr. Steinhertz.
Dr. Steinhertz joins Immuneering from Glenmark Pharmaceuticals/Ichnos Sciences, Inc., where, since 2019, she served as Executive Director, Global Program Leader, Portfolio & Program Management, Oncology. Previously, from 2016 to 2019, she was the Group Director, External Collaborations, Oncology at Merck & Co., Inc., where she led a group of more than 30 clinical scientists and project managers supporting over 250 combination Phase 1-3 studies in 30+ indications for Keytruda® in co-development with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academic and U.S. government entities. Prior to that, from 2006 through 2015, Dr. Steinhertz held positions of increasing responsibility in the oncology group at Eisai, Inc., most recently serving as Director, Program & Alliance Management, Oncology Business Unit. Earlier in her career, from 2002 to 2006, she held various positions at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, working on several pre-IND assets across multiple indications.
Dr. Steinhertz earned the equivalent of a B.S. in chemical engineering from the Moscow Technological Institute, a B.S. in chemistry from Rhode Island College, a Ph.D. in medicinal/organic chemistry from Boston College and a Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute. She also completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in medicinal/organic chemistry at Harvard University.
About Immuneering Corporation
Immuneering is a biopharmaceutical company with an emerging pipeline focused on improving patient outcomes across a spectrum of debilitating oncologic and neurologic diseases by applying its deep knowledge of translational bioinformatics to every stage of the drug development process. Immuneering has more than a decade of experience in translational bioinformatics and generating insights into drug mechanisms of action and patient treatment responses. Building on this experience, Immuneering has developed a disease-agnostic platform that enables the company to utilize human data, novel biology and chemistry, and translational planning to create and advance its wholly owned pipeline. Immuneering’s current development programs in oncology are focused on providing potential treatments for patients with solid tumors caused by mutations of oncologic signaling pathways, including the MAPK pathway. Immuneering’s lead product candidate, IMM-1-104, is designed to be a highly selective dual-MEK inhibitor that further disrupts KSR for the treatment of advanced solid tumors in patients harboring RAS mutant tumors. Additionally, Immuneering has six other oncology programs in the discovery stage that are designed to target either the MAPK or mTOR pathway, and two neuroscience programs in the discovery stage.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes certain disclosures that contain "forward-looking statements," including, without limitation, statements regarding Immuneering’s progress toward drugs targeting cancers driven by alterations that activate the RAS/MAPK pathway, the treatment potential of IMM-1-104, including in combination with other drugs, the timing of regulatory filings for IMM-1-104 with the FDA and commencement of clinical trials for IMM-1-104. 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 the Company’s most recent Form 10-Q filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as well as in Immuneering’s subsequent filings it makes with the SEC. 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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