Tmunity snatches up former Novartis cell therapy head

Tmunity Therapeutics Inc. (Philadelphia, Pa.) said it hired Usman Azam as president and CEO. Azam was global head of the cell and gene therapies unit at Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; SIX:NOVN), which the pharma dissolved in August to integrate into its reorganized innovative medicines structure (see BioCentury Extra, Aug. 31).

Tmunity, co-founded by University of Pennsylvania immunotherapy professor Carl June, is developing T cell receptor (TCR) engineered T cells, Treg cells, and universal engineered T cell platforms that control T cell activation and direction in vivo. The company also is developing technologies to activate, expand and genetically engineer T cells from peripheral blood, cord blood and tumors (see BioCentury Extra, Jan. 13)...