CULVER CITY, Calif., April 24, 2023 — ImmunityBio, Inc. (NASDAQ: IBRX), a clinical-stage immunotherapy company, today announced that Executive Chairman and Global Chief Scientific and Medical Officer Patrick Soon-Shiong, M.D., has been invited to deliver the 2023 David Packard Award Lecture at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU). The university extended Dr. Soon-Shiong the invitation to give this prestigious guest lecture in recognition of his “scientific accomplishments as a pioneer” in cancer therapies, immunotherapy, and digital technologies to share genomic information.
The lecture, “Activating Natural Killer and T Cells to Induce T Cell Memory for the Treatment of Cancer: The Cancer Moonshot,” will be delivered on Tuesday, April 25, in Bethesda, MD.
Dr. Soon-Shiong’s intense interest in immunology began during his tenure at UCLA where he performed the first whole organ pancreas transplant at UCLA and also performed Whipple procedures in patients suffering from pancreatic cancer. His interest in the immune system in these patients led Dr. Soon-Shiong to a distinguished career as a surgeon, scientist, inventor, and philanthropist with over 500 issued worldwide patents and 100 scientific publications.
In 2001, Dr. Soon-Shiong founded American Pharmaceutical Partners (APP), and in 2005 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved his invention Abraxane, the nation’s first protein nanoparticle chemotherapy, for breast cancer. By 2013, the FDA had approved the drug for lung and pancreatic cancer. The science surrounding the development of Abraxane spurred his interest in the tumor microenvironment and how orchestrating the innate immune system with the adaptive system could transform cancer care and the development of a cancer vaccine. That is the subject of the Packard lecture to be delivered.
USU’s annual David Packard Award lecture was established by the University’s faculty senate in honor of Hewlett-Packard cofounder David Packard, who served as Deputy Secretary of Defense and USU’s second president in the 1970s. Previous Packard Award lecturers include Nobel Laureate Dr. Stanley Prusiner and Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Dr. Anthony Fauci.
About the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, founded by an act of Congress in 1972, is the nation’s federal health sciences university and the academic heart of the Military Health System. USU students are primarily active-duty uniformed officers in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Public Health Services who receive specialized education in tropical and infectious diseases, TBI and PTSD, disaster response and humanitarian assistance, global health, and acute trauma care. USU also has graduate programs in oral biology, biomedical sciences, and public health committed to excellence in research. The University’s research programs cover a wide range of areas important to both the military and public health. For more information about the USU and its programs, visit www.usuhs.edu.
About ImmunityBio
ImmunityBio is a vertically-integrated, clinical-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation therapies and vaccines that bolster the natural immune system to defeat cancers and infectious diseases. The company’s range of immunotherapy and cell therapy platforms, alone and together, act to drive and sustain an immune response with the goal of creating durable and safe protection against disease. These platforms and their associated product candidates are designed to be more effective, accessible, and easily administered than current standards of care in oncology and infectious diseases.
N-803 (Anktiva™), ImmunityBio’s lead cytokine fusion protein, is a novel IL-15 superagonist complex and has received Breakthrough Therapy and Fast Track Designations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for BCG-unresponsive CIS non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). N-803 is currently under review by the FDA for this indication with a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) target date of May 23, 2023.
The company has established GMP manufacturing capacity at scale with cutting-edge cell therapy manufacturing expertise and ready-to-scale facilities, as well as extensive and seasoned R&D, clinical trial, and regulatory operations, and development teams. For more information, please visit: www.immunitybio.com
Forward Looking Statements
This press release and accompanying remarks may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, such as statements regarding the development of therapeutics for cancers and infectious diseases, lecture participation and timing, potential regulatory pathway for certain of ImmunityBio’s product candidates and target indications, data from the clinical trials for certain of ImmunityBio’s product candidates, potential implications to be drawn from clinical trials, potential commercialization of product candidates, and ImmunityBio’s product candidates as compared to existing treatment options, among others. Statements in this press release that are not statements of historical fact are considered forward-looking statements, which are usually identified by the use of words such as “anticipates,” “believes,” “continues,” “goal,” “could,” “estimates,” “scheduled,” “expects,” “intends,” “may,” “plans,” “potential,” “predicts,” “indicate,” “projects,” “seeks,” “should,” “will,” “strategy,” and variations of such words or similar expressions. Statements of past performance, efforts, or results of our preclinical and clinical trials, about which inferences or assumptions may be made, can also be forward-looking statements and are not indicative of future performance or results. Forward-looking statements are neither forecasts, promises nor guarantees, and are based on the current beliefs of ImmunityBio’s management as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to ImmunityBio. Such information may be limited or incomplete, and ImmunityBio’s statements should not be read to indicate that it has conducted a thorough inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available relevant information. Such statements reflect the current views of ImmunityBio with respect to future events and are subject to known and unknown risks, including business, regulatory, economic and competitive risks, uncertainties, contingencies and assumptions about ImmunityBio, including, without limitation, (i) the ability of ImmunityBio to continue its planned preclinical and clinical development of its development programs, and the timing and success of any such continued preclinical and clinical development and planned regulatory submissions, (ii) the risks and uncertainties associated with the regulatory submission, review and approval process, (iii) ImmunityBio’s ability to retain and hire key personnel, (iv) ImmunityBio’s ability to obtain additional financing to fund its operations and complete the development and commercialization of its various product candidates, (v) ImmunityBio’s ability to successfully commercialize its product candidates and uncertainties around regulatory reviews and approvals, (vi) ImmunityBio’s ability to scale its manufacturing and commercial supply operations for its product candidates and future approved products, (vii) ImmunityBio’s ability to obtain, maintain, protect and enforce patent protection and other proprietary rights for its product candidates and technologies, and (viii) the unknown future impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on certain clinical trials or their milestones and/or ImmunityBio’s business operations or operating expenses. More details about these and other risks that may impact ImmunityBio’s business are described under the heading “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on March 1, 2023, and in subsequent filings made by ImmunityBio with the SEC, which are available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. ImmunityBio cautions you not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. ImmunityBio does not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statement or other information in this press release, except to the extent required by law.
Contacts:
Investors
Sarah Singleton
ImmunityBio, Inc.
844-696-5235, Option 5
Sarah.Singleton@immunitybio.com
Media
Katie Dodge
Salutem
978-360-3151
Katie.Dodge@Salutem.com
