NEW YORK, Jan. 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Actinium
Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE American: ATNM) ("Actinium" or
"the Company") announced today the appointment of Qing Liang, PhD
as Vice President and Head of Radiation Sciences. This key
leadership position will be responsible for executing strategic and
operational plans to advance the Company's growing pipeline of ARC
or Antibody Radiation Conjugate therapies that are being driven by
its AWE or Antibody Warhead Enabling technology platform.
Actinium's clinical pipeline of ARCs is being applied to
targeted conditioning to enable cellular therapies such as BMT or
Bone Marrow Transplant and CAR-T as well as in combinations to
leverage potential synergies of radiation with other modalities
including chemotherapy, other targeted agents and
immunotherapy.
In this newly created position at Actinium, Dr. Liang will work
with Actinium's strengthened research and development group to
drive innovation in line with Actinium's strategic vision related
to its AWE technology platform. In addition, Dr. Liang will
collaborate closely with clinical trial sites and their staffs,
regulators and other key stakeholders to help advance and optimize
Actinium's clinical ARC programs to deliver the best possible
outcomes for patients.
Sandesh Seth, Actinium's Chairman
and CEO said, "Actinium has made great progress in advancing our
AWE technology platform and leadership position with Actinium-225
through rejuvenated R&D efforts in 2018. As a result, we
have a multitude of opportunities to leverage the highly
differentiated attributes of Actinium-225 ARCs in combination with
other therapeutic modalities and we are thrilled to welcome Dr.
Liang to the Actinium team at this time. Given Dr. Liang's
invaluable experience and knowledge in the areas of radiobiology
and radiation physics, we have great confidence that she will help
Actinium capitalize on these opportunities and work with our
scientific team to drive the next phase of R&D into novel and
exciting therapeutic combinations. In addition, Dr. Liang
will also support our partners and partnering efforts around our
AWE platform. We expect the strengthened capabilities and quality
of our R&D team, as exemplified by Dr. Liang, to yield
significant value as we continue to make progress with our AWE
platform and also with our development pipeline focused on
improving patient outcomes and access to important cellular
therapies such as bone marrow transplant and CAR-T through targeted
conditioning.
Qing Liang, PhD, DABR brings highly relevant experience to
Actinium related to the advancement and innovation of
radiation-based therapies for improved therapeutic outcomes. Her
research focus and interests revolve around radiation dosimetry,
Monte Carlo Simulation, Knowledge Based Image Dose Optimization and
Management, and imaging protocol optimization. Dr. Liang is a
Medical Physicist certified by the American Board of Radiology and
prior to Actinium was Medical Physicist and Assistant Professor at
Fox Chase Cancer Center at Temple
University (Philadelphia,
PA). Prior to that, she had worked at Mercy Health System
(Janesville, WI), Turville Bay MRI
& Radiation Oncology (Madison,
WI), University of Wisconsin
Hospital (Madison, WI), and UW
Accredited Dosimetry Calibration Laboratory (Madison, WI). Dr. Liang has extensive
knowledge on Radiation Physics, Radiation Dosimetry (Therapeutic
and Imaging Dose), Radiation Protection and Safety, Health Physics
and Radiobiology. Dr. Liang is currently an active member of the
American Association of Physicist in Medicine and currently servers
on three professional committees and task groups. She received BS
and MS in Material Science and Engineering from Tsinghua
University, Beijing, China, and
earned her PhD in Medical Physics from University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI.
Dr. Liang said, "Being a Medical Physicist, I know firsthand the
importance of radiation-based therapies and their capabilities. I
was drawn to Actinium by the uniqueness of the AWE technology
platform, its leadership with Actinium-225 and also its unique
leadership position in targeted conditioning. The Company's
commitment to driving AWE and the strong R&D team that has been
assembled is very impressive and I look forward to working with the
team to fully elucidate the potential of the AWE platform and also
development pipeline through innovation, technology development and
collaborations. Given the renewed interest in targeted radiation
therapies, I believe it is the ideal time to be further leveraging
Actinium's AWE technology platform and intellectual property to
create novel therapies and combinations that will expand Actinium's
leadership position in the field of ARC's."
About Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Actinium Pharmaceuticals Inc. is focused on improving patient
access and outcomes to cellular therapies such as bone marrow
transplant (BMT) and CAR-T with its proprietary, chemotherapy free,
targeted conditioning technology. Actinium is the only company with
a multi-disease, multi-target, drug development pipeline focused on
targeted conditioning. Its targeted conditioning technology is
enabled by ARCs or Antibody Radio-Conjugates that combine the
targeting ability of monoclonal antibodies with the cell killing
ability of radioisotopes. Actinium's pipeline of clinical-stage
targeted conditioning ARCs target the antigens CD45 and CD33 for
patients with a broad range of hematologic malignancies including
acute myeloid leukemia (AML), myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and
multiple myeloma (MM).
Iomab-B, Actinium's lead targeted conditioning product
candidate, is currently enrolling patients in the pivotal Phase 3
SIERRA trial in patients age 55 or older, with active, relapsed or
refractory AML. Iodine-131 apamistamab (Iomab-B), combines the
anti-CD45 monoclonal antibody labeled with iodine-131 for
myeloablation prior to a bone marrow transplant. CD45 is expressed
on leukemia, lymphoma and normal immune cells. Iomab-B has been
studied in over 500 patients in 10 clinical trials in numerous
hematologic diseases. Actinium's Iomab-ACT program is an expansion
of its CD45 program that is intended to be a universal, chemo-free
solution for targeted lymphodepletion prior to CAR-T. Through
targeted lymphodepletion, the Iomab-ACT program is expected to
improve CAR-T cell expansion, reduce CAR-T related toxicities and
expand patient access to CAR-T treatment and potentially other
adoptive cell therapies. Due to its lower payload dose,
lymphodepletion with the Iomab-ACT program can be accomplished
through a single outpatient infusion. Actinium intends to advance
its Iomab-ACT program with CAR-T focused collaborators from
academia and industry.
Actinium's pipeline also includes a potentially best-in-class
CD33 program with its ARC comprised of the anti-CD33 antibody
lintuzumab labeled with the alpha-particle emitter actinium-225.
Its CD33 program is currently being studied in multiple Phase 1
clinical trials for targeting conditioning, in combinations and as
a therapeutic in multiple diseases and indications including AML,
MDS and MM.
Actinium is also developing its proprietary AWE or Antibody
Warhead Enabling technology platform which utilizes radioisotopes
including iodine-131 and the highly differentiated actinium-225
coupled with antibodies to target a variety of antigens that are
expressed in hematological and solid tumor cancers. The AWE
technology enables Actinium's internal pipeline and with the
radioisotope Actinium-225 is being utilized in a collaborative
research partnership with Astellas Pharma,
Inc. Actinium's clinical programs and AWE technology
platform are covered by a portfolio of over 75 patents covering
composition of matter, formulations, methods of use and also
methods of manufacturing the radioisotope Actinium-225 in a
cyclotron.
More information is available at www.actiniumpharma.com and our
Twitter feed @ActiniumPharma, www.twitter.com/actiniumpharma.
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.
Contact:
Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Steve O'Loughlin
Principal Financial Officer
soloughlin@actiniumpharma.com
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SOURCE Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.