Overland Pharmaceuticals (“Overland”), a premier biopharmaceutical company bringing innovative medicines to patients in Asia and worldwide, today announced the appointment of Roger Luo, Ph.D. as Chief Development Officer, Head of Clinical and Preclinical Development. Dr. Luo brings to Overland over 20 years of industry experience in translational research and clinical development for innovative oncology, immunology and hematology therapeutics. In this newly created position, Dr. Luo will be responsible for managing the company’s overarching development function including clinical science, biometrics, clinical operations, pharmacovigilance and clinical pharmacology, in addition to overseeing the buildout of Overland’s preclinical development organization.

“We are delighted to add Roger to our leadership team as a welcome addition to drive the overall development strategy of Overland’s portfolio of differentiated therapeutics,” said Ed Zhang, MBA, Co-founder and Interim Chief Executive Officer of Overland. “With an accomplished track record in translational and clinical research in both the U.S. and China, we look forward to collaborating with Roger to advance Overland’s growing pipeline as we execute on our mission of bringing innovative medicines to underserved patients in Asia and around the world.”

“I am honored to join Overland to continue evolving the company’s strategy of partnering with innovative biotech companies to jointly develop and commercialize novel therapeutic programs,” said Dr. Roger Luo. “As a cross-border fully integrated biopharma company, Overland is in a great position to expand access to breakthroughs in biomedicine for patients around the globe, and I am excited to play a role in fulfilling this important mission.”

Prior to joining Overland, Dr. Luo worked for several biotechnology companies in China serving in various executive leadership positions with primary responsibilities including overseeing the global clinical development of target therapy and immunotherapy assets as well as overall portfolio management. In addition, Dr. Luo previously held multiple clinical development roles of increasing responsibility at major pharmaceutical companies including The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson as well as at Daiichi Sankyo Pharma Development and Bristol-Myers Squibb. During his career, he led and supported multiple NDA programs for novel oncology drugs, most notably Abivertinib, an EGFR inhibitor for lung cancer, Erdafitinib, a FGFR inhibitor for urothelial cancer, and Dasatinib, a BCR-ABL inhibitor for leukemia. Additionally, he engaged in the development of multiple biologic drugs including Cetuximab, Tigatuzumab, anti-VISTA antibody, anti-PD-1/Tim3 dual body, CD137 agonist and anti-CTLA4 antibody.

Dr. Luo completed his postdoctoral fellowship training at Cancer Institute of New Jersey. He received his Ph.D. in clinical pharmacology/cancer pharmacology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, his M.S. in biochemistry from Bowling Green State University, and his B.S. in chemistry from Peking University. He is currently the executive committee member of USCACA and is affiliated with the professional organizations of AACR, ASCO, CSCO, ASH, IASLC and ASCPT.

SOURCE: Overland Pharmaceuticals (press release)