Singapore –Tessa Therapeutics, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on cellular immunotherapy treatments for cancer, announced the appointment of Ivan D. Horak as President of Research and Development. In his new position, Dr. Horak will be responsible for all aspects of Tessa’s research and development, regulatory and clinical development activities.

Dr. Horak brings more than 20 years of experience in the global pharmaceutical industry, predominantly focused on oncology drug development, and is a board-certified medical oncologist. He joins Tessa from Symphogen, a clinical-stage antibody company, where he was Head of Global R&D and Chief Scientific and Medical Officer. Prior to that, he was the President of R&D at Enzon Pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Horak has also held a number of senior research leadership positions in various pharmaceutical companies as well as at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). During his career, Dr. Horak advanced multiple oncology treatments into the clinic and successfully led a number of FDA new drug applications.

In addition to publishing over 90 scientific articles and book chapters, Dr. Horak is a member of several prominent medical societies such as the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), American Society of Hematology (ASH) and European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO). He also served on the editorial board of the scientific journal, Cancer Research.

“I am delighted to welcome Ivan to Tessa Therapeutics. The vast experience he brings to our senior team further strengthens Tessa’s industry expertise and will be instrumental in maximizing the success of our R&D pipeline,” said Tessa Therapeutics co-founder and CEO, Mr. Andrew Khoo. “I am confident that his stewardship will play an important role as Tessa progresses our portfolio of clinical and pre-clinical cellular immunotherapies into the next phase of development.”

Commenting on his new role, Dr. Horak said, “I have been very impressed with Tessa’s research and development portfolio. This is an exciting opportunity to play a leading role in advancing the Company’s pipeline of groundbreaking cellular immunotherapies. Tessa’s Virus-Specific T (VST) cell platform holds tremendous potential for the treatment of solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. We are at a point in medical history in which immunotherapy is being widely recognized as the most promising path to treat cancer. Tessa’s portfolio includes opportunities to develop that path in truly unique ways. I look forward to working closely with the management and staff to make Tessa’s vision a reality.”