Dr. John May joins GenEros BioPharma as CEO
NEW YORK, NY, USA: GenEros BioPharma (“GenEros” or “the Company”) announced today that Dr. John (Jianfeng) May has joined as chief executive officer. He will be responsible for the company's overall operations, particularly development of the four clinical stage products in China and abroad.
Dr. May has more than 20 years of experiences in drug development, clinical trial management, and medical affairs in the US. He obtained his B.S. degree from Xiamen University of China in 1985 and joined the Chinese Academy of Sciences as a researcher. Subsequently he graduated from Weill Cornell Medical College and obtained his Ph.D. from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, working with Dr. Gavril Pasternak. After completing his post-doctoral training at Yale University in 2001, he joined a biotech company managing clinical trials. Dr. May has also served as senior medical director at Greenikon, Baxter Biologics and Pharmaceuticals. Over the years he has participated in or led the development of more than a dozen clinical drugs in various areas including immunity, cancer, sleep and peripheral nerve disorders.
Dr. Xin-Yuan Fu, Founder and Chairman of GenEros, was excited by Dr. May’s appointment:
“The addition of Dr. May to the GenEros team is a big step forward for our company at this critical stage. We strongly believe that under the new leadership of Dr. May, with his rich experience in global clinical development and management, the development of our clinical products, as well as our major pipelines of STAT5 inhibitors, will be greatly advanced."
Dr. May was also excited for the opportunity. He said, "It is a great honor to be part of GenEros. Since the discovery of JAK-STAT signaling pathway in 1992 (Fu, Cell 70:323-335), Dr. Fu has dedicated his career to the exploration of inflammation mechanisms and the development of novel drugs for the STAT pathway. I am very impressed by the originality and innovation of the company's pipelines. I am looking forward to working with this excellent team to develop innovative drugs targeting the JAK-STAT and Th-GM ( T helpers producing GM-CSF) pathways.”
In addition to the new CEO, GenEros has made several important progresses in 2021. Several months ago, Clinflamozyde, the company’s main asset targeting the novel inflammation pathway Th-GM, was approved by FDA to initiate clinical studies for the treatment of COVID-19. It has also been approved by FDA for clinical studies on rheumatoid arthritis and is currently undergoing clinical investigation in Europe.
GEC-255, another innovative drug of GenEros, has been approved for clinical trials by the CDE of China for advanced solid tumors. The lead clinical trial center, the West China Hospital, will officially start patient enrollment in November 2021.
