Innate Pharma: Jennifer Butler appointed as Executive VP, General Manager, US

Innate Pharma announces the appointment of Jennifer Butler as Executive Vice President, General Manager, US   

  • Commercial industry leader with immuno-oncology product launch experience joins Innate’s Executive Committee
  • General Manager will lead the Lumoxiti® transition to Innate Pharma from AstraZeneca including build-out of commercial and medical affairs operations
  • Global commercial leadership further strengthened with the additions of Hélène Arditti as Strategic Executive Advisor and Guillaume Gimonet as Senior Director, Launch Excellence  

Marseille, France, March 12, 2019, 7:00 AM CEST

Innate Pharma SA (the “Company”, “Innate” - Euronext Paris: FR0010331421 – IPH) today announces the appointment of commercial industry leader Jennifer Butler as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Innate Pharma US Inc., effective March 11 2019. Ms. Butler brings more than 20 years of strategic marketing and commercial leadership expertise across several therapeutic areas. Throughout her career, Ms. Butler has led and built multiple global and US commercial teams, including the product launch of IMFINZI®/durvalumab (anti-PD-L1) while serving as the Global Commercial Head of Immuno-oncology at AstraZeneca.                              Ms. Butler will lead Innate Pharma’s US corporate activities focusing on the establishment of the Company’s US operations to fully support the commercialization of Lumoxiti®. She will also collaborate with Innate’s global commercial team to support Lumoxiti’s future potential launches in Europe and life cycle management. Ms. Butler will be part of the Executive Committee of Innate Pharma and report directly into Mondher Mahjoubi, Chief Executive Officer.

“We welcome Jennifer to the Innate team. Her skills and leadership will be invaluable to Innate to support our expansion into the US and the execution of our goals for the commercialization of Lumoxiti®,” commented Mondher Mahjoubi, Chief Executive Officer of Innate Pharma. “Jennifer is an accomplished and successful commercial leader with deep expertise in immuno-oncology. She has an impressive track record of establishing commercial operations and successfully executing drug launches in the US. This is an exciting and rewarding year for Innate as we not only have the ability to discover and develop potential novel therapeutics in high unmet need patient populations, but are now able to provide the first FDA approved alternative treatment in 20 years to third line hairy cell leukaemia patients.”    

Ms. Butler will be joining Innate from Tessa Therapeutics, a clinical-stage oncology company, where she served as Chief Business Officer, Chief Commercial Officer and Head of US operations, responsible for global business development and commercial strategy. Prior to her role at Tessa Therapeutics, she served for more than 10 years in various commercial roles with increasing responsibility at AstraZeneca/MedImmune. While at AstraZeneca, Ms. Butler was the Global Commercial Head of Immuno-Oncology, where she led the global commercial team preparing for the company’s first Immuno-Oncology launches with IMFINZI® in bladder cancer. Ms. Butler also previously worked in strategic healthcare consulting and as an analyst in Equity Capital Markets at Merrill Lynch.

“I am excited to be joining Innate Pharma at this important inflection point as it transitions from a R&D organization into a fully-integrated biotechnology company,” commented Jennifer Butler. “We are in a unique and privileged position for Innate to build an oncology commercial infrastructure for Lumoxiti® that we will be able to leverage for the launch, subject to regulatory approval in the US, of our proprietary asset IPH4102. I look forward to leading a collaborative and seamless transition of commercial operations from AstraZeneca for Lumoxiti® while building out Innate’s commercial and medical affairs organization. These efforts are the building blocks for Innate’s US affiliate operations and will ensure continued future development and commercialization of novel therapeutic options for patients fighting cancer.”

AstraZeneca launched Lumoxiti® in November and is currently responsible for its commercialization. Per the October 2018 agreement with AstraZeneca, a staged collaborative transition of operations with AstraZeneca will occur over 2019. Innate Pharma will take on full responsibility by mid-2020. Filing and launch in Europe are planned for 2019 and 2021, respectively.

Innate has further strengthened its global commercial team with the appointment of additional senior leadership.

Hélène Arditti has joined as a Strategic Executive Advisor for commercialization to the Innate Executive Committee. Ms. Arditti brings over 20 years of global marketing and franchising expertise with a focus in oncology.  Most recently she was the Global Uro-oncology Franchise Senior Vice President and previously the Endocrinology Marketing Director at Ipsen. In both of these positions, Ms. Arditti successfully developed the global launch, life cycle management, and business development strategies for two oncology products, Decapeptyl® and Cabometyx®.

Guillaume Gimonet has also joined Innate as Senior Director, Launch Excellence for Lumoxiti. He is responsible for leading the launch of Lumoxiti across functional teams to ensure smooth and timely project execution. He was most recently the Director of Global Program Management and previously the Global Launch Management Director Oncology at Ipsen in which he secured Cabometyx® accelerated launch in Renal Cell Cancer.

About Innate Pharma:

Innate Pharma S.A. is a fully integrated oncology-focused biotech company dedicated to improving treatment and clinical outcomes for patients through therapeutic antibodies that harness the immune system to fight cancer.

Innate Pharma’s commercial-stage product, Lumoxiti, in-licensed from AstraZeneca, was approved by the FDA in September 2018. Lumoxiti is a first-in class specialty oncology product for hairy cell leukemia (HCL). Innate Pharma’s broad pipeline of antibodies includes several first-in-class clinical and preclinical candidates in cancers with high unmet medical need.

Innate Pharma has pioneered the discovery and development of checkpoint inhibitors, with a unique expertise and understanding of Natural Killer cell biology. This innovative approach has resulted in major alliances with leaders in the biopharmaceutical industry including Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novo Nordisk A/S, Sanofi, and a landmark and multi-products partnership with AstraZeneca/MedImmune. 

Based in Marseille, France, Innate Pharma is listed on Euronext Paris.

Learn more about Innate Pharma at www.innate-pharma.com

Information about Innate Pharma shares:

ISIN codeTicker codeLEI FR0010331421IPH9695002Y8420ZB8HJE29

Disclaimer:

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. Although the company believes its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, these forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. For a discussion of risks and uncertainties which could cause the company's actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, please refer to the Risk Factors (“Facteurs de Risque") section of the Document de Reference prospectus filed with the AMF, which is available on the AMF website www.amf-france.org or on Innate Pharma’s website.

This press release and the information contained herein do not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe to shares in Innate Pharma in any country.

For additional information, please contact:

Investors   Innate Pharma  Dr. Markus Metzger / Danielle Spangler /Jérôme Marino Tel.: +33 (0)4 30 30 30 30 investors@innate-pharma.com   International Media   Consilium Strategic Communications Mary-Jane Elliott / Jessica Hodgson Tel.: +44 (0)20 3709 5700 InnatePharma@consilium-comms.com
  French Media   ATCG Press Marie Puvieux Mob: +33 (0)6 10 54 36 72 presse@atcg-partners.com  

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