Scancell Holdings Plc, (AIM:SCLP), the developer of novel immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, today announces the appointment of Dr Alan J. Lewis to the Board of Scancell as Non-Executive Director with immediate effect.

Alan has extensive experience in the US life sciences industry with a proven track record of raising funds and advancing drug discovery and development in both biotechnology and large pharmaceutical companies. Since 2000, as CEO, Alan has successfully led several life sciences companies through rapid growth to a successful exit. At Medistem he oversaw the acquisition by Intrexon in March 2014 for a stock and cash transaction of $26 million. Whilst at Novocell, he supervised the $25.4 million fundraising and was responsible for its multi-year drug discovery collaboration with Pfizer. As CEO of Signal Therapeutics, Alan oversaw multi-year alliances with a number of leading pharmaceutical companies including Akzo Nobel, Roche Biosciences and Novartis, and subsequently managed its $275 million acquisition by Celgene.

Alan has also held senior positions at Celgene, Ambit Biosciences, and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and initially worked in research at Organon Laboratories (Merck) and Wyeth Laboratories (Pfizer).

He is currently President and CEO of DiaVacs, a San Diego based clinical stage biotechnology company developing products to reverse the onset of autoimmune diseases by re-inducing tolerance into the patient’s immune system to halt the vicious cycle of autoimmunity.

Alan has a B.Sc in Physiology and Biochemistry from Southampton University, UK, a Ph.D in Pharmacology from the University of Wales, UK where he was later made an Honorary Research Fellow in 2008. He has held research fellowships at University of Guelph, Canada and Yale University, USA, and has published over 120 full manuscripts, 100 abstracts as well as written and edited seven books.

Speaking upon his appointment, Dr Lewis said: “I am very much looking forward to joining the Board of Scancell. This is an exciting time for immuno-oncology and I am delighted to be involved in the cutting edge science that underpins the company’s research and development.”

Dr John Chiplin, Executive Chairman of Scancell continued: “We welcome Alan to the Scancell Board. He brings with him a wealth of industry experience, both commercially and financially. Most importantly though,
Alan has extensive experience in drug discovery and development, which combined with his close connections to key players in the sector, will be invaluable to Scancell as it begins to accelerate the development of a range of new products from the ImmunoBody® and Moditope® platforms from next year."

Schedule Two information regarding Dr Alan James Lewis, age 70:

Current Directorships
Assembly Biosciences, Inc. (US)
Batu Biologics, Inc. (US)
Biocom (US)
BioMarin Pharmaceutical, Inc. (US)
Capella Therapeutics (US)
Cellastra, Inc. (US)
DiaVacs, Inc. (US)
Habit Rx (US)
International Association of Inflammation Societies (US)
Neurometrix Rx (US)
The Stem Cell Advisors, Inc. (US)
Targazyme, Inc. (US)

Directorships in the past five years
Ambit Biosciences Corporation (US)
Biotica Technology Ltd. (UK)
Cytochroma (CA)
Medistem, Inc. (US)
Rincon Pharmaceuticals (US)

There are no other disclosures required in relation to Rule 17 or paragraph (g) of Schedule 2 of the AIM Rules for Companies.

This announcement contains inside information.

For Further Information:

About Scancell

Scancell is developing novel immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer based on its ImmunoBody® and Moditope® technology platforms.

Scancell’s first ImmunoBody®, SCIB1 is being developed for the treatment of melanoma. Data from the Phase 1/2 clinical trial demonstrate that SCIB1, when used as monotherapy, has a marked effect on tumour load, produces a melanoma-specific immune response and highly encouraging survival trend without serious side effects. In patients with resected disease there is increasing evidence to suggest that SCIB1 may delay or prevent disease recurrence.

Scancell’s ImmunoBody® vaccines target dendritic cells and stimulate both parts of the cellular immune system: the helper cell system where inflammation is stimulated at the tumour site and the cytotoxic Tlymphocyte or CTL response where immune system cells are primed to recognise and kill specific cells.

Pre-clinical data on a combination of SCIB1 or SCIB2 and checkpoint inhibition (blockade of the PD-1 or CTLA-4 immune checkpoint pathways) have shown enhanced tumour destruction and significantly longer survival times than when either treatment was used alone.
Scancell has also identified and patented a series of modified epitopes that stimulate the production of killer CD4+ T cells that destroy tumours without toxicity. The Directors believe that the Moditope® platform could play a major role in the development of safe and effective cancer immunotherapies in the future.