On November 2, 2021 Cellectar Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLRB), a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of targeted drugs for the treatment of cancer, reported Laurence Reilly, M.D., LL.M as its interim chief medical officer (Press release, Cellectar Biosciences, NOV 2, 2021, View Source [SID1234594106]). Dr. Reilly will oversee the company’s clinical development programs and report to Chief Executive Officer James Caruso. He succeeds John Friend, MD, who is stepping down for personal reasons but will stay on through mid-November to finalize the ongoing transition.
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"We are delighted to welcome Laurence to our executive team and look forward to his leadership of our clinical development programs. His deep background in hematological oncology and experience leading global clinical development teams to successfully bring new therapies to patients will support Cellectar’s next phase of growth. Laurence will be a tremendous asset as we execute our registrational trial for iopofosine I-131 (iopofosine) in Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia (WM) and continue to develop our hematologic cancer and pediatric solid tumor programs as well as further advance our other pipeline assets," said James Caruso, president and CEO of Cellectar.
"We thank John for his outstanding work and collaboration with the FDA that established a defined registrational pathway for iopofosine in WM, and for securing the world-class global trial sites and thought leadership support critical for our pivotal WM study. We are now focused on executing and completing our pivotal WM trial, enriching our Phase 2 CLOVER-1 trial with additional multiple myeloma patients, and enrolling in our pediatric trial. Our balance sheet remains strong with sufficient capital to achieve our strategic goals into the second half of 2023, and we look forward to continued execution across our programs."
Dr. Laurence Reilly has consulted for the company since early this year. Prior to joining Cellectar, he provided strategic consulting and due-diligence services to biotech companies, life science venture capital and private equity clients, alongside serving as chief strategy & development officer to a European-based medical device company. Prior to founding his consulting practice, Dr. Reilly served as chief scientific officer and vice president at Avillion, a drug development company focused on the co-development and financing of pharmaceutical candidates, where he was responsible for clinical and strategic oversight of co-development programs and partnering with both large pharma and biotech, including Pfizer and AstraZeneca. Dr. Reilly previously served as a clinician at Pfizer and began his industry career at Lundbeck where he served as medical and scientific advisor overseeing investigator-initiated research, opinion leader interaction and new compound presentation. Dr. Reilly earned his medical degree from the University of Liverpool Medical School, U.K., and a Masters Degree in Law from De Montfort University, U.K.
Dr. Reilly added, "I am excited to join the Cellectar team and drive the clinical development and success of iopofosine. The data in WM and multiple myeloma are extremely encouraging and with a defined registrational path, iopofosine is poised to become a meaningful treatment option for these patients. I look forward to bringing iopofosine to market and continuing to develop the exciting pipeline of candidates from the PDC platform."