ImmunoGen has appointed Eric Guempel as the company’s first VP of product strategy and programme management.
Guempel joins from Merck Serono where he served as head of new therapies and strategy for the company’s oncology business.
His previous business experience includes several oncology-related positions at Biogen Idec, including team leader for Rituxan (rituximab), as well as commercial positions at Amgen,
Guempel’s career also includes research-related positions at Amgen, Berlex and Ciba-Geigy (now Novartis).
Dr Charles Morris explained the creation of Guempel’s new role.
“Eric joins ImmunoGen in a new position we established to enhance the strategic leadership of our proprietary programmes, ensuring that as we advance our clinical compounds through proof of concept we implement development strategies for each compound that align with patient and market needs,” said Dr Morris.
These programmes focus on antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) to target cancers.
The most successful of these ADCs so far is Kadcyla, which ImmunoGen developed with Genentech, now a part of Roche.