ChemGenex appoints new CCO

Australian-US pharmaceutical company, ChemGenex, today announced the appointment of Thomas DeZao to the position of senior vice president and chief commercial officer, starting immediately.

ChemGenex focuses on developing personalised medicines targeting cancer, with its flagship drug, omacetaxine, due for launch in the United States in 2010. Omacetaxine is a treatment chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) patients who are resistant to existing kinase inhibitors such as Glivec (known as Gleevec in the US).

According to a company release, DeZao will lead the company’s commercial efforts including sales, marketing and the coordination of manufacturing activities for the launch of omacetaxine in the USA.

DeZao has more than 25 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including six years at Genitope Corporation as vice president of strategic marketing and sales where he worked on the commercialisation of MyVax Personalized Immunotherapy for the treatment of follicular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. DeZao has also had stints at Corixa/Coulter Pharmaceuticals, Asta Medica and Chiron Corporation.

ChemGenex (ASX:CXS) is up 8.46% in morning trading to $0.59.