Allogene Therapeutics, Inc. announced the appointment of Zachary J. Roberts M.D., Ph.D. to Executive Vice President of Research and Development. The hiring of Dr. Roberts, who previously held clinical leadership roles at Instil Bio and Kite Pharma, underscores the Company's commitment to rapidly advancing its pipeline following recent clinical data illustrating the potential of its AlloCAR T product candidates to induce deep and durable responses. Dr. Roberts will assume the responsibilities of Rafael Amado, M.D. who has resigned to pursue other opportunities. Arun Balakumaran, M.D., Chief Medical Officer and Barbra Sasu, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer will report to Dr. Roberts. Dr. Roberts is a trained immunologist and a board certified oncologist with extensive experience in clinical oncology, including the development of cell therapies. Prior to joining Allogene, Dr. Roberts was Chief Medical Officer of Instil
Bio where he led development of both clinical and pre-clinical programs. Prior to that, Dr. Roberts held various roles of increasing responsibility at Kite Pharma (acquired by Gilead in 2017), where he was instrumental in the development and execution of the ZUMA trials across multiple indications for Yescarta(R), the first autologous CAR T therapy approved for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He holds an M.D. and Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Maryland and completed clinical and post-graduate training at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.