SAN DIEGO, CA--(Marketwired - May 15, 2014) - Genelux Corporation, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops vaccinia virus-based cancer therapeutics and diagnostics, today announced that Aladar Szalay, PhD has chosen to retire from the positions of Chairman, President and CEO of Genelux for personal reasons. Dr. Szalay will continue to serve as chief scientific advisor to the CEO and remain on the company's board of directors as chairman emeritus. Effective May 2, 2014, pharmaceutical industry veteran and long-time Amgen executive, Mr. Thomas Zindrick will serve as president and CEO. Mr. James L. Tyree, formerly of Abbott will serve as chairman of the board.
"Dr. Szalay has proven the promise and value of this technology," said Tom Zindrick. "I'm honored to lead the charge in advancing oncolytic virotherapy research that may someday effectively treat people with a number of different types of solid tumors. I am committed to working with the exceptional team at Genelux as we advance into later stage trials and to continue to build value for our shareholders."
Prior to Genelux, Zindrick was CEO of Amitech Therapeutic Solutions, Inc., a La Jolla, California based discovery and drug development company, and has also served as an independent consultant to Genelux Corporation on a number of legal and business-related matters. Zindrick retired from Amgen Inc. in 2009 after a distinguished 16 year career, where he served as Vice President, Associate General Counsel, leading intellectual property, licensing and regulatory law teams that were instrumental in achieving acquisitions totaling over twenty billion dollars and the licensing and development of six therapeutic products and numerous clinical candidates. Mr. Zindrick also served as Chief Compliance Officer, reporting to the Board of Directors.
"The Board has expressed their appreciation for Dr. Szalay's leadership in the field of oncolytic immunotherapy and his tireless efforts and dedication on behalf of Genelux," said James L. Tyree, incoming Genelux Board Chairman. "Under Dr. Szalay's direction, Genelux Corporation has acquired an impressive international patent portfolio and moved its leading product candidate, GL-ONC1, into human clinical trials. As a result, the company is well-positioned as the leader in the emerging field of oncolytic immunotherapy."
Mr. Tyree has served as a Genelux board member or observer since 2009 and has been elected to serve as Chairman of the Board. He has a distinguished career in health care spanning more than 30 years with senior management positions at Abbott Laboratories, Bristol-Meyers Squibb and Pfizer. Most recently he served as President of Abbott Biotech Ventures. Prior to joining Abbott, Mr. Tyree was the President of Sugen Inc., a biotechnology company focused in Oncology.
About Genelux Corporation
Headquartered in San Diego, California, Genelux Corporation is a privately held, clinical stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to fundamentally changing the way in which cancer is diagnosed and treated. The company has developed a proprietary oncolytic vaccinia virus-based technology platform that can be engineered to insert specific therapeutic genes for delivery and amplification of anti-cancer proteins and RNA into cancer cells without harming healthy cells. The company is also incorporating advanced diagnostic deep-tissue imaging technologies into its viral platform to enable highly specific visualization of tumors and circulating cancer cells. GL-ONC1, the company's lead oncology product candidate, is an attenuated vaccinia virus (Lister strain) that is currently under evaluation in multiple Phase I-II clinical trials in the US and Europe. For more information please visit http://www.genelux.com.
Genelux Forward Looking Statement
Statements made about Genelux Corporation, other than statements of historical fact, reflect Management's current beliefs and assumptions founded on the data and information currently available to us. Statements of the company's progress, results, timing of pre-clinical and clinical trials and projections for product pipelines are examples of forward-looking statements. By definition, such undertakings involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions, and are subject to a number of such factors that could cause actual results to differ substantially from statements made, including but not limited to: risks associated with the success of clinical trials, research and development programs, regulatory approval processes for clinical trials, competitive technologies and products, patents, inception and/or continuation of corporate and other strategic partnerships and the need for additional funding or financing.
Contact Information:
Richard Roose
RCI Partners
415-202-4445
rick.roose@rci-partners.com