Experienced Pharmaceuticals and Oncology Executive to Assume Leadership Role
Cincinnati, OH and Boston, MA, July 29, 2024 — Sus Clinicals, Inc.® announced today that Jessicca M. Rege, Ph.D. has been appointed by the Company’s Board of Directors as Chief Executive Officer effective August 1, 2024. Co-Founder and current CEO Jeffrey D. Weedman will remain with the Company as Executive Chair.
“After an exhaustive search, my colleagues on the Board and I are delighted we have found the right leader to take Sus Clinicals to the next level,” said Weedman. “Jess brings a unique combination of deep scientific expertise, and a demonstrated track record of cross-functional business leadership, from start-ups to major global pharmaceutical players.”
“I am thrilled to be joining the Sus Clinicals team,” said Dr. Rege. “My passion is to accelerate transformative research and therapeutics into the clinic, with the hope to save lives. To bring the qualified and FDA cleared Oncopig® platform to more researchers across medical devices, diagnostics and pharmaceuticals is a wonderful opportunity professionally and for the patients we all serve.”
Sus Clinicals has the ability to accelerate development of life-saving cancer therapeutics through proprietary pig-based pre-clinical testing services. Known as the Oncopig Cancer Model® (OCM), this highly predictive approach can more quickly identify drugs, diagnostics and devices that have the highest potential for success in human clinical trials. The Model allows Sus Clinicals’ clients to focus their resources and advance the most promising leads more quickly into the clinic and ultimately to in-market success.
Most recently Dr. Rege was Chief Development Officer of Mural Oncology and was instrumental in leading the public offering of the company. She led the company’s immune-oncology strategy, including program execution from pre-IND to Phase IV/compound commercialization. Prior to Mural she served as Vice President, Head of Clinical Development, Oncology at Alkermes, where she led oncology portfolio strategy, including fundraising, investor relations and clinical due diligence for partnerships, collaborations and licensing activities.
She was Global Chief Development Officer for OncXerna (formerly known as Oncologie), where she was responsible for building the company infrastructure and leading global strategy and oversight of clinical development functions, operations, regulatory, manufacturing, clinical pharmacology and biometrics. There she also raised both series A ($16 million) and B ($80 million) rounds, and led multiple M&A transactions in just two years.
She held multiple leadership roles in larger pharmaceuticals companies, including Global Chief of Staff – Cancer Enterprise for Daiichi-Sankyo, and Associate Vice President of Global Clinical Collaborations – Oncology Business Unit at Eli Lilly, and with Eisai Inc., including Senior Director, Head of Global Medical Affairs – Oncology. Earlier in her career she held clinical research and other positions at Hoffman-LaRoche and Bristol Myers Squibb.
Dr. Rege is a member of multiple professional associations, and has co-authored several scientific papers/presentations on a range of cancer therapeutics. Dr. Rege received her doctorate in Pharmaceutical Sciences specialized in pharmacogenomics from the Medical College of Virginia, Virgina Commonwealth University (VCU), and her M.S. in Physiology also from VCU. She received a B.A. in Biology from Carson Newman College where she was a competitive softball player and scholar receiving multiple accolades. She resides in Boston, Massachusetts and continues to enjoy playing softball, among other outdoor activities.
Sus Clinicals is the exclusive global licensee of intellectual property from the University of Illinois (UI) related to the OCM. The OCM allows for the induction of relevant tumors on demand in the genetically-modified Oncopigs, providing researchers with an enhanced predictive model to ultimately lead to better results in humans. The patent-pending protocols help cancer researchers accelerate development and qualification of various medicines, devices, immunotherapies and diagnostics across a range of cancers.
In addition to Weedman, Dr. Rege joins the following who remain as officers of the Company and Board members: Dr. Lawrence B. Schook, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, who led the UI team which developed the technology; Geoffrey T. Marshall, Chief Financial Officer; and Stephen J. Baggott, Chief Operating Officer.
Retained executive search services were provided by Kingsley Gate.
Contact:
Sus Clinicals, Inc.
Stephen J. Baggott
Chief Operating Officer
steve@susclinicals.com
513-300-1927
www.susclinicals.com
