Leading the charge: driving allogeneic CAR T cell immunotherapy towards clinical and commercial success

Cell & Gene Therapy Insights 2019; 5(5), 647-652.

10.18609/cgti.2019.073

Published: 4 July 2019
Interview
David Chang

David Chang is the President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Allogene. He previously served as Executive Vice President, Research & Development, and Chief Medical Officer of Kite, a Gilead Company. He has an industry-leading track record of innovation in the field of oncology drug development, including the development of Yescarta™ (axicabtagene ciloleucel), the first CAR T therapy approved for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. From 2002 to 2014, he held senior leadership roles at Amgen, including Vice President of Global Development and Head of Hematology-Oncology. During this time, David spearheaded personalized therapy strategies underlying the success of Vectibix® (panitumumab). He also provided therapeutic area leadership to pivotal programs for Blincyto® (blinatumomab), a bispecific T cell engager antibody in acute lymphocytic leukemia and for IMLYGIC™ (talimogene laherparepvec), a first-of-its-kind oncolytic immunotherapy in melanoma. Prior to joining Amgen, David held dual appointments as Associate Professor of Medicine and of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. He obtained a BS in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and MD and PhD degrees from Stanford University. David completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a fellowship in medical oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School, where he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute postdoctoral fellow.