San Diego, Ca., USA - March 4, 2015, San Diego, Ca., USA - Fate Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, announced that Wendy Levin will join the company as VP, clinical development and that Walter Grubb has joined as VP, business development.
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Dr. Levin will play a critical role spearheading the Company's clinical development of PROHEMA in patients with hematologic malignancies and rare genetic disorders. Dr. Levin, a board-certified hematologist / oncologist with extensive experience in clinical oncology research, joins Fate Therapeutics from MEI Pharma, where she was Vice President of Clinical Development and Medical Affairs.
Previously, she held positions of increasing responsibilities at Pfizer from 2007 to 2013, where she led a global oncology program targeting the hedgehog pathway from first-in-human studies into later-stage development.
Dr. Levin completed her Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Southern California, and went on to complete a Hematology / Oncology Fellowship at the University of Washington / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
Mr. Grubb's responsibilities will include the assessment, valuation and licensing of business opportunities for the Company. Mr. Grubb was previously Executive Director of Business Development and Commercial Operations at Ambit Biosciences, where he was responsible for multiple partnership transactions, provided commercial leadership for product candidates spanning a range of indications and stages of development, and was instrumental in the company's initial public offering and ultimate acquisition by Daiichi-Sankyo.
Prior to Ambit, Mr. Grubb held positions of increasing responsibility at Neurocrine Biosciences from 2000 to 2008 that included business development, market analytics, medical affairs and product marketing.
Additionally, the Company announced the promotion of John Ferraro to the newly-created position of Vice President, Clinical Operations.
Mr. Ferraro joined Fate Therapeutics in February 2013, and will be responsible for the Company's clinical operations and data management functions.
Prior to joining Fate, Mr. Ferraro was the Senior Director of Clinical Operations at GlobeImmune, Inc., where he established the clinical operations group and led the advancement of multiple targeted immunotherapies through the clinical development process in the United States and in Europe. ■