Culver City, Ca., USA - September 23, 2015, Culver City, Ca., USA - NantKwest, Inc., a clinical-stage immunotherapy company, names Andreas Niethammer as executive medical director, Dvorit Samid as SVP of medical affairs and Jerel A. Banks as SVP mergers and acquisitions.
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Most recently, Dr. Niethammer was vice president clinical development immune oncology for privately held Poseida Therapeutics.
He is an associate professor of oncology at Ruprecht-Karls-Universitaet Heidelberg (Heidelberg University) and co-founded Vaximm AG, a Swiss-based company focused on oral vaccines for cancer and infectious diseases.
Previously, Dr. Niethammer was vice president clinical development for Tocagen, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, and before that served in senior level roles with Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Company and ImClone, where he focused on cancer immunotherapy and drug development.
Dr. Samid has more than 30 years of oncology research and drug development experience.
She most recently served as vice president of medical affairs for Synta Pharmaceuticals, after holding similar positions with several other pharmaceutical companies, including ImClone Systems, Allos Therapeutics, Abraxis Oncology and Hoffman-La Roche.
Prior to joining pharma, Dr. Samid was an associate professor at the University of Virginia’s Cancer Center and a section chief for the National Cancer Institute.
Dr. Samid earned a doctorate degree in Cell Biology from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. and a Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel.
She has authored more than 80 publications in oncology and holds 19 patents.
Prior to joining NantKwest, Dr. Banks served as vice president, portfolio manager and research analyst for the Franklin Biotechnology Discovery Fund at Franklin Templeton Investment.
Previously, he worked as a senior equity research analyst covering the biotechnology sector at Sectoral Asset Management Inc. and Apothecary Capital.
Before that Dr. Banks was an equity research associate on the healthcare investment team at Capital Research and Management. ■