Ocugen Establishes Vaccine Scientific Advisory Board
December 23 2020 - 7:15PM
Ocugen, Inc., (NASDAQ: OCGN), a leading biopharmaceutical company
focused on discovering, developing and commercializing a pipeline
of innovative therapies, today announced the appointment of a
vaccine scientific advisory board comprised of leading academic and
industry experts in the vaccine field to evaluate the clinical and
regulatory path to approval in the US market of Bharat Biotech’s
COVAXIN™, a whole-virion inactivated COVID-19 vaccine
candidate to be co-developed by Ocugen and Bharat Biotech for
the US market.
Dr. Shankar Musunuri, Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder of Ocugen
remarked, “We are thrilled to welcome this group of esteemed
thought leaders to the Ocugen team to assist in our co-development
with Bharat Biotech of COVAXIN™. This unique yet traditional
vaccine candidate is different from other options currently
available in the US market with potentially broader coverage
against multiple protein antigens of the virus.”
The vaccine scientific advisory board consists of:
- Satish Chandran, PhD, Wyeth Vaccines, Pfizer,
Nucleonics, SomahlutionDr. Chandran founded Somahlution
and is currently the Somahlution’s Chief Executive Officer and a
member of the Board of Directors since inception in 2010. Prior to
Somahlution he was the Chief Technology Officer at Pfizer
Biotherapeutics and prior to that was the COO and CSO of
Nucleonics, Inc. Satish started his biotech career at Apollon,
Inc., headed the DNA vaccines at Wyeth Vaccines. He is a
biotechnology veteran with nearly 30 years of leadership positions.
Over the last 30 years, his career in biological research and
development has spanned across academia and industry; early start
up and mid-stage biotech companies and in large pharmaceutical
companies. Satish’s passion and strength are in building and
assembling teams and taking novel concepts and therapeutic
strategies into products through development, regulatory approval,
and commercialization. He is currently on the Board of Directors
and serves as scientific advisor and consultant to several
biotechnology companies.
- David Fajgenbaum, MD, MBA, MSc, FCPP, Translational
Medicine & Human Genetics, University of Pennsylvania, Founding
Director of Center for Cytokine Storm Treatment &
LaboratoryDr. Fajgenbaum is an Assistant Professor of
Medicine in Translational Medicine & Human Genetics at the
University of Pennsylvania, Director of the Penn Center for
Cytokine Storm Treatment & Laboratory, Executive Director of
the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network, and Associate
Director, Patient Impact for the Penn Orphan Disease Center. He is
doing groundbreaking work to advance precision medicine for
Castleman disease, a condition that he is battling as a physician,
researcher, advocate, and patient. Combining omic technologies with
machine learning and other bioinformatic tools, Dr. Fajgenbaum has
discovered novel predictive biomarkers of treatment response and
novel treatment approaches, including one that is saving his life
and others. Now, he is spreading this approach to other diseases
such as COVID19.
- Bruce Forrest, MB, BS, MD, MBA, Wyeth Vaccines,
PfizerFor over 25 years, Dr. Forrest worked as a
pharmaceutical industry physician leading the global development of
pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and biological drugs. As Senior Vice
President at Wyeth Vaccines, Dr. Forrest was responsible for all
late phase clinical and pharmaceutical science development
activities for vaccines in the Wyeth pipeline, including Prevnar
13®; the meningococcal B vaccine (Trumemba®) and an early
investigational Staphylococcus aureus vaccine. This role included
managing a vaccines’ development organization situated in North
Carolina and New York, responsible for all R&D CMC and
Manufacturing activities. In addition, Dr. Forrest was responsible
for management and oversight of all Vaccines Clinical Research
clinical trial and development activities globally with a dedicated
vaccines clinical staff. He led the clinical activities supporting
the market authorization for RotaShield® (EU), Prevnar® (Global),
and FluMist®. Dr. Forrest also served as the Corporate Officer and
Member of the Board of Wyeth K.K. during his tenure in Japan.
He joined United Biomedical, Inc. in 1993 leading the earliest
international clinical development of HIV vaccines, initiating
clinical trials in China, Australia, and Thailand. At Chiron
Corporation he was the global clinical team leader for a
meningococcal C conjugate vaccine (Menjugate®). Dr. Forrest is an
investment banker with a Westchester, NY based investment bank
(Young America Capital, LLC) where he co-heads Life Sciences
Investment Banking. He also owns an independent FINRA-registered
investment advisory firm that is regulated by the State of New York
(Aeolian Advisors Corp.).
- Catherine Pachuk, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer,
Marizyme, Wyeth Vaccines, Pfizer and Coronavirologist,
VaccinologistDr. Pachuk has over twenty-five years R&D
leadership experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors
with expertise in both drug, device, and vaccine development with
significant experience in nucleic-acid based therapeutic platforms
including ASO, RNAi and nucleic-acid based vaccines. Her key areas
of therapeutic focus are viral diseases including Hepatitis B,
Hepatitis C, and Coronavirus, metabolic disease, HCC, and
indications associated with Ischemia Reperfusion Injury. She was
involved in advancing multiple product candidates into the clinic
and market including several first-in-man compounds. She received
her Ph.D. in molecular virology from the University of Pennsylvania
where she studied the molecular biology of coronaviruses. She also
has a dual Regulatory Affairs Certificate from RAPS (Regulatory
Affairs Professional Society) in Medical Devices and
Pharmaceuticals.
- Harvey Rubin, MD, PhD, Professor of Microbiology and
Infectious Diseases, U PennsylvaniaDr. Rubin is Professor
of Medicine with secondary appointment as Professor of Computer
Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. The NIH, NSF, DARPA,
the Global Alliance for TB Drug Discovery, and the Gates Foundation
have funded his basic biochemical and genetic research in
infectious diseases, resulting in more than 100 peer-reviewed
papers. He served on national and international scientific review
panels including the NIH, NSF, NASA Intelligent Systems Program,
DARPA, and The Medical Research Council, South Africa. He was a
member of the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity
and the Dept. of Defense/National Academy of Sciences Biological
Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. Dr. Rubin is the founder of
Energize the Chain, a non-profit organization and GAVI INFUSE and
funded partner that ensures the delivery of vaccines to people in
the most remote regions of the world by utilizing power and
connectivity in the private sector, such as that available at cell
tower sites to power the refrigeration systems that are necessary
to keep vaccines at the proper temperature.
- Susan Weiss, PhD, Professor of Microbiology, U
Pennsylvania. Co-Director Coronavirus Research Center and Renowned
CoronavirologistDr. Weiss obtained her PhD in Microbiology
and Molecular Genetics from Harvard University working on
paramyxoviruses and did postdoctoral training in retroviruses at
University of California, San Francisco with Mike Bishop and Harold
Varmus. She moved to the University of Pennsylvania in 1980, where
she is currently Professor and Vice Chair, Department of
Microbiology and Co-director of the Penn Center for Research on
Coronaviruses and Other Emerging Pathogens at the Perelman School
of Medicine. She has worked on many aspects of coronavirus
replication and pathogenesis over the last forty years, making
contributions to understanding the basic biology as well as organ
tropism and virulence. She has worked with murine coronavirus
(MHV), MERS-CoV and most recently SARS-CoV-2. Her work for the last
ten years has focused on coronavirus interaction with the host
innate immune response and viral innate antagonists of
double-stranded RNA induced antiviral pathways. Her other research
interests include activation and antagonism of the antiviral
oligoadenylate-ribonuclease L (OAS-RNase L) pathway, flavivirus-
primarily Zika- virus-host interactions and pathogenic effects of
host endogenous dsRNA.
About Ocugen, Inc.Ocugen, Inc. is a
biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and
commercializing transformative therapies to cure blindness
diseases. Our breakthrough modifier gene therapy platform has the
potential to treat multiple retinal diseases with one drug – “one
to many” and our novel biologic product candidate aims to offer
better therapy to patients with underserved diseases such as wet
age-related macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema, and
diabetic retinopathy. For more information, please visit
www.ocugen.com.
Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking
StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking
statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995, which are subject to risks and uncertainties.
We may, in some cases, use terms such as “predicts,” “believes,”
“potential,” “proposed,” “continue,” “estimates,” “anticipates,”
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outcomes to identify these forward-looking statements. Such
statements are subject to numerous important factors, risks and
uncertainties that may cause actual events or results to differ
materially from our current expectations. These and other risks and
uncertainties are more fully described in our periodic filings with
the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), including the
risk factors described in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in
the quarterly and annual reports that we file with the SEC. Any
forward-looking statements that we make in this press release speak
only as of the date of this press release. Except as required by
law, we assume no obligation to update forward-looking statements
contained in this press release whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise, after the date of this
press release.
Ocugen Contact:Ocugen, Inc.Sanjay
SubramanianChief Financial Officerir@ocugen.comMedia
Contact:LaVoieHealthScienceLisa
DeScenzaldescenza@lavoiehealthscience.com+1 978-395-5970
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