ROCKVILLE, Md. and HONG KONG, March 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/— Ascentage Pharma, a global clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing apoptosis-targeted therapies for cancers and other diseases, today announced the appointment of Thomas J. Knapp as Senior Vice President, General Counsel. Mr. Knapp has over 30 years of corporate legal experience, with expertise in the biopharmaceutical sector.
“We are pleased to have Tom join the Ascentage executive team,” said Dr. Dajun Yang, Chairman & CEO of Ascentage Pharma. “His deep understanding of the biotechnology industry will be a major asset as we continue to advance our pipeline of best- and first-in-class apoptosis-targeted therapies. He joins Ascentage at an important time for the Company and his contributions will be vital for our interactions with potential strategic partners as we continue to refine our clinical development strategy.”
In his most recent role as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Galena Biopharma, Inc., a publicly traded pharmaceutical company that merged with Sellas Life Sciences Group in 2017. There, Mr. Knapp was responsible for domestic and global legal matters, litigation, corporate governance and compliance and IP matters. Previously, Mr. Knapp was the Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary at Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Earlier in his career, he served as Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at NorthWestern Corporation, was Of Counsel at Paul Hastings and Exemplar Law Partners, LLC and held many legal leadership positions at The Boeing Company and The Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Company.
Currently, Mr. Knapp serves as a member of the Board of Directors at Osiris Therapeutics. He earned his B.A. in Political Science and Business from the University of Illinois-Urbana and a J.D. from Loyola University School of Law.
About Ascentage Pharma
Ascentage Pharma is a globally-focused, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel small molecule therapies for cancers, hepatitis B and age-related diseases. Based on breakthrough technology from the University of Michigan, the Company’s expertise is in designing therapeutics that inhibit protein-protein interactions to restore apoptosis, or programmed cell death, in cancers. Ascentage has built a rich pipeline of eight clinical candidates, including a novel, highly potent Bcl-2/Bcl-xL inhibitor, APG-1252, as well as candidates aimed at IAP and MDM2-p53 pathways, and next-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors. For more information, please visit www.ascentagepharma.com.