Actinium Announces Appointment of Mark Kubik, MBA as Chief Business Officer
NEW YORK, March 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE AMERICAN: ATNM) ("Actinium") today announced the appointment of Mark Kubik, MBA to the position of Chief Business Officer (CBO). In this role, Mr. Kubik will be responsible for leading the Company's business development activities including collaboration and partnership activities as well as portfolio and alliance management. He will focus on leveraging Actinium's AWE technology platform, which encompasses Actinium's strong intellectual property portfolio, know-how and research capabilities, and pipeline of ARCs or antibody radiation conjugates to drive business development activity. Mark joins Actinium from OncoImmune where he was CBO and led the process and execution that resulted in OncoImmune being acquired by Merck in November 2020, for $425 million up front with additional contingent regulatory and sales milestones and royalties. Across his 25-year career, Mark has established a successful track record of transformative deal creation and productive alliances in the empowered antibody, biologics and gene therapy areas at companies such as Abgenix (now Amgen), i2 Pharmaceuticals, Seagen and MacroGenics, among others.
Sandesh Seth, Actinium's Chairman and CEO, said, "We are thrilled to add Mark to the Actinium team where he will fill an important role in leading our business development activities at an important time in our evolution. Throughout his career, Mark has demonstrated an ability to create value through collaborations, partnerships and alliances at leading edge companies developing biologics, empowered antibodies and gene therapies. From these successes, Mark has developed a strong network throughout the industry and a deep understanding for the value of technologies and drug candidates and how to create and realize their value. We are confident that Mark's proven track record of architecting successful transactions will provide the right leadership in building on the exciting momentum we've generated for our ARCs and AWE technology platform at a time when the differentiated nature of targeted radiotherapy is growing in recognition. We expect 2021 to be an exciting year for Actinium as we will complete SIERRA enrollment, have proof of concept data across multiple clinical programs and accelerate our R&D capabilities through strong investment in AWE. I look forward to working with Mark and the rest of the Actinium team to realize the value of our drug candidates and technologies in 2021 and beyond."
Mr. Kubik stated, "I have followed Actinium for several years now and have been continually impressed with the progress that has been made in advancing the AWE platform, the strategic development of the ARC clinical programs and combination therapies, and the team and capabilities that have been assembled. I could not think of a better time to join Actinium given the external validation for the AWE platform from the collaboration with Astellas and the growing body of clinical data supporting the potential for targeted radiotherapy via ARCs. With several clinical milestones expected in the coming quarters, including completing recruitment in SIERRA and topline data, proof of concept data with Iomab-ACT for cell and gene therapy conditioning and Actimab-A combination data from multiple Phase 1 trials, I am excited to be able to showcase multiple assets to a broad audience in the biopharmaceutical field globally. Coupled with Actinium's enhanced research capabilities via our research laboratory and ever-growing patent portfolio, Actinium is aptly suited to execute on a wide array of collaborations and business development initiatives. Having witnessed firsthand the evolution of the biologics and antibody therapeutic space, I firmly believe that targeted radiotherapy is the next progression for this field and I look forward to leveraging my experiences and network to bring the full potential of Actinium's technologies to bear."
Prior to joining Actinium, Mark served as CBO at OncoImmune, where he headed its business development function and led a process and transaction whereby the company was sold to Merck for $425M upfront with potential additional contingent regulatory and sales milestones and royalties. Prior to OncoImmune, Mark held positions in business development and led transformative and award-winning deal making at AvantGen, Abgenix (now Amgen), Protein Design Labs (PDL), XOMA, Seattle Genetics (now Seagen), MacroGenics, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, i2 Pharmaceuticals / Velocity Sciences, and Invenra, among others. In addition to the M&A transaction between OncoImmune & Merck, important deal highlights for Mark, include a global co-development agreement on behalf of Abgenix (now Amgen) with Immunex for Vectibix® (panitumumab), an ex-US strategic alliance on behalf of Seattle Genetics with Takeda for Adcetris® (brentuximab vedotin) (nominated by Recombinant Capital / Allicense for consideration as 2009 "Alliance of the Year") and a multi-program bispecific mAb discovery collaboration on behalf of MacroGenics with Gilead (won Licensing Executives Society (LES) Alliance of the Year in Life Sciences Award in 2013).
Mark received his MBA in Finance from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado-Boulder and his BA (cum laude) in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology (MCDB) from CU-Boulder
About Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE: ATNM)
Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing ARCs or Antibody Radiation-Conjugates, which combine the targeting ability of antibodies with the cell killing ability of radiation. Actinium's lead application for our ARCs is targeted conditioning, which is intended to selectively deplete a patient's disease or cancer cells and certain immune cells prior to a BMT or Bone Marrow Transplant, Gene Therapy or Adoptive Cell Therapy (ACT) such as CAR-T to enable engraftment of these transplanted cells with minimal toxicities. With our ARC approach, we seek to improve patient outcomes and access to these potentially curative treatments by eliminating or reducing the non-targeted chemotherapy that is used for conditioning in standard practice currently. Our lead product candidate, I-131 apamistamab (Iomab-B) is being studied in the ongoing pivotal Phase 3 Study of Iomab-B in Elderly Relapsed or Refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia (SIERRA) trial for BMT conditioning. The SIERRA trial is over seventy-five percent enrolled and positive single-agent, feasibility and safety data has been highlighted at ASH, TCT, ASCO and SOHO annual meetings. More information on this Phase 3 clinical trial can be found at sierratrial.com. I-131 apamistamab will also be studied as a targeted conditioning agent in a Phase 1 study with a CD19 CAR T-cell Therapy with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Phase 1/2 anti-HIV stem cell gene therapy with UC Davis. In addition, we are developing a multi-disease, multi-target pipeline of clinical-stage ARCs targeting the antigens CD45 and CD33 for targeted conditioning and as a therapeutic either in combination with other therapeutic modalities or as a single agent for patients with a broad range of hematologic malignancies including acute myeloid leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome and multiple myeloma. Ongoing combination trials include our CD33 alpha ARC, Actimab-A, in combination with the salvage chemotherapy CLAG-M and the Bcl-2 targeted therapy venetoclax. Underpinning our clinical programs is our proprietary AWE (Antibody Warhead Enabling) technology platform. This is where our intellectual property portfolio of over 100 patents, know-how, collective research and expertise in the field are being leveraged to construct and study novel ARCs and ARC combinations to bolster our pipeline for strategic purposes. Our AWE technology platform is currently being utilized in a collaborative research partnership with Astellas Pharma, Inc. Website: https://www.actiniumpharma.com/
Forward-Looking Statements for Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
This press release may contain projections or other "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe-harbor" provisions of the private securities litigation reform act of 1995 regarding future events or the future financial performance of the Company which the Company undertakes no obligation to update. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from the anticipated or estimated future results, including the risks and uncertainties associated with preliminary study results varying from final results, estimates of potential markets for drugs under development, clinical trials, actions by the FDA and other governmental agencies, regulatory clearances, responses to regulatory matters, the market demand for and acceptance of Actinium's products and services, performance of clinical research organizations and other risks detailed from time to time in Actinium's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), including without limitation its most recent annual report on form 10-K, subsequent quarterly reports on Forms 10-Q and Forms 8-K, each as amended and supplemented from time to time.
Contacts:
Investors:
Hans Vitzthum
LifeSci Advisors, LLC
[email protected]
(617) 430-7578
SOURCE Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
