LONDON (Alliance News) - Scancell Holdings PLC on Monday said it is opening new offices in San Diego to support its US growth plans and anticipates opening a base in Oxford, as it announced a shuffling of its executive board.
The cancer immunotherapies developer said it plans to establish the new base in the Oxford area for its UK corporate and development activities, whilst the new offices in San Diego should support is "ambitious" US growth plans. The company had said in its interim results in January that it was hoping to strengthen its presence in the US.
Scancell also noted that it had made a number of changes to its executive team which it said should "optimally align management expertise with the strategic direction outlined in the GBP6.2 million fundraising completed in April".
At the time the company had said the funding meant it was "able to accelerate the development of both our ImmunoBody and Moditope platform technologies. We will use the money raised to prepare for our SCIB1 ImmunoBody/checkpoint inhibitor combination study in melanoma, including applying for a US investigational new drug later this year, enabling the study to begin in 2017 and also to take our first Moditope product, Modi-1, into the clinic next year."
On Wednesday Scancell said its Non-Executive Chairman John Chiplin, who is based in the UK, will assume the role of executive chairman. Prior to Scancell, Chiplin was chief executive of Polynoma, a Phase III cancer vaccine company, based in San Diego, Scancell said.
The company added that Richard Goodfellow, who is currently joint chief executive, will become the sole chief executive, whilst Lindy Durrant, who also currently serves as joint chief executive, will become chief financial officer. Scancell said this will allow her to "focus fully on the innovative drug discovery that underpins Scancell's novel technology platforms".
"The board believes that these changes align management with the strategic direction outlined at the time of our recent GBP6.0 million fundraising and optimally leverage expertise with the needs of the company," said Executive Chairman John Chiplin.
"Scancell's next generation cancer vaccine platforms, ImmunoBody and Moditope, are delivering outstanding results and I am convinced that Scancell will secure wider recognition for its innovative technologies and products in both the US and Europe over the coming months," Chiplin added.
Shares in Scancell were up 4.9% at 15.99 pence on Wednesday.
By Hannah Boland; hannahboland@alliancenews.com; @Hannaheboland
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Scancell Holdings (SCLP)