Actinium Announces Appointment of Niva Almaula, Ph.D. as Chief Business Officer

NEW YORK, May 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.  (NYSE AMERICAN: ATNM) ("Actinium") today announced the appointment of Niva Almaula, Ph.D. as Chief Business Officer, effective immediately. Dr. Almaula joins Actinium with significant experience in the targeted radiotherapy field, having most recently worked as Head, Business Development at Advanced Accelerator Applications, Inc., a nuclear medicine company acquired by Novartis for $3.9 billion in January 2018.

As Chief Business Officer, Dr. Almaula will be focused on leading partnership, licensing and collaboration activities for Actinium's clinical-stage ARC's or Antibody Radiation Conjugates for targeted conditioning including Iomab-B, Actimab-MDS and the Iomab-ACT program, its ARC therapeutics and combinations and AWE or Antibody Warhead Enabling technology platform that is being utilized in a collaborative research partnership by Astellas Pharma, Inc.

"I am delighted to welcome Dr. Almaula to the Actinium team and look forward to working with her to execute on multiple initiatives focused on deriving maximum value from our wide array of assets," said Sandesh Seth, Actinium's Chairman and CEO. "Amidst a backdrop of growing interest for targeted radiotherapy, we have created an exciting business that encompasses our highly differentiated clinical stage ARC's, AWE technology platform, a leadership position in the utilization of actinium-225, a broad intellectual property portfolio and robust supply chain capabilities. Further, we are unique as having the only multi-target, multi-indication clinical stage pipeline in the field of targeted conditioning, which represents an exciting potential strategic business unit and enables optionality with our ARC combination and therapies, next generation ARC's and AWE platform. Considering Dr. Almaula's deep technical and domain expertise in the field of targeted radiotherapies gained during her time at Advanced Accelerator Applications, Inc. and proven business development skills, I am confident in her ability to leverage Actinium's ARC and AWE technologies to help us execute against our strategic vision."

Dr. Almaula said, "Having witnessed first hand the value creation that is possible with highly differentiated radiopharma assets, I am excited to join the Actinium team. Actinium has established an impressive leadership position in the application of radiotherapy for targeted conditioning with Iomab-B being differentiated as the only ARC and CD45 targeting agent in clinical development for targeted conditioning. By astutely leveraging its ARC approach and AWE platform, Actinium has furthered its leadership position in targeted conditioning with the Actimab-MDS trial for a patient population with significant unmet needs and the Iomab-ACT program for CAR-T and cellular therapies where recent preclinical data supports its multi-modal mechanism of action. Actinium is also a leader in the application of actinium-225 with strong IP, know-how and an established collaboration that can be further leveraged through the AWE technology platform. The blend of late-stage clinical assets and technology platform is a unique combination that affords Actinium multiple opportunities to create significant value through strategic initiatives."

Dr. Almaula comes to Actinium with twenty years of biopharmaceutical industry experience. She joins Actinium from Advanced Accelerator Applications, Inc., a Novartis company, that is focused on nuclear medicine and targeted therapies including Lutathera^® (lutetium 177 dotatate) for the treatment of neuroendocrine tumors. Advanced Accelerator Applications, Inc. was acquired by Novartis in January 2018 for $3.9 billion. Dr. Almaula joined AAAP in May 2015 where she was Head, Business Development responsible for leading the global business development activities to strategically build AAAP's oncology portfolio. During her time at AAAP, Dr. Almaula executed three exclusive licenses that expanded the company's therapeutic and diagnostic pipeline and represented AAAP to potential partners and collaborators. Prior to AAAP, she was Founder and Partner of Octane BioVentures, where she provided business development and strategy consulting services to early stage life science companies.  Previously, she worked in alliance management and business development at Dr. Reddy's Labs, Biologics and Nycomed (now Takeda). Dr. Almaula also worked for Bio-IB, LLC, a healthcare focused investment banking firm where she advised clients on licensing, M&A and business development efforts and at the Rockefeller University in its licensing department. She began her career at Mehta Partners, LLC in biotechnology equity research.

Dr. Almaula completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Neurobiology at Mount Sinai Medical Center. She earned her Ph.D. in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology from Rutgers University/University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and her bachelor's degree in Life Sciences and Biochemistry from St. Xavier's College, Bombay University, India.

About Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on improving patient access and outcomes to cellular therapies such as BMT or Bone Marrow Transplant and CAR-T with its proprietary ARC or Antibody Radiation-Conjugate targeted conditioning technology. Actinium is also developing its proprietary AWE or Antibody Warhead Enabling technology platform, which utilizes radioisotopes including iodine-131 and the highly differentiated actinium-225 coupled with antibodies, to target a variety of antigens that are expressed in hematological and solid tumor indications. It is developing a multi-disease, multi-target pipeline of clinical-stage ARC's targeting the antigens CD45 and CD33 for targeting conditioning and as a therapeutic either in combination with other therapeutic modalities or as a single agent for patients with a broad range of hematologic malignancies including Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) and Multiple Myeloma (MM). Actinium's lead product candidate, Iomab-B, is in a pivotal Phase 3 trial for re-induction and conditioning prior to a BMT for patients with active relapsed or refractory AML or Acute Myeloid Leukemia. BMT is the only curative treatment option for this patient population and currently no standard of care exists. Actimab-MDS is its second pivotal program for targeted conditioning that will study the ARC comprised of the anti-CD33 monoclonal antibody lintuzumab linked to the radioisotope actinium-225 in patients with high-risk MDS in combination with RIC or Reduced Intensity Conditioning prior to a BMT.  Its Iomab-ACT program utilizes a lower dose of Iomab-B (CD45 – I-131) that is intended to be used for targeted conditioning or lymphodepletion prior to CAR-T and adoptive cell therapies as a replacement to non-optimized chemotherapies, such a Flu/Cy or fludarabine and cyclophosphamide, that is used in standard practice today. Actinium also has multiple clinical trials ongoing, in startup phase, or in planning, to use its CD33 ARC in combination with other therapeutic modalities such as chemotherapy, targeted agents or immunotherapy. It has initiated several combination trials, including a doublet combination trial with its CD33 ARC and venetoclax, a BCL-2 inhibitor, for patients with relapsed or refractory AML, a triplet combination trial with venetoclax and an HMA or hypomethylating agent and in combination with the salvage chemotherapy regimen CLAG-M (cladribine, cytarabine, filgrastim and mitoxantrone) for patients with relapsed or refractory AML. Actinium is also studying its CD33 ARC as single agent for patients with penta-refractory multiple myeloma. Its AWE technology platform enables Actinium's internal pipeline and with the radioisotope actinium-225 is being utilized in a collaborative research partnership with Astellas Pharma, Inc. Actinium's clinical programs and AWE technology platform are covered by a portfolio of over 110 patents covering composition of matter, formulations, methods of use, the DOTA linker technology for actinium-225 applications and methods of manufacturing the actinium-225 radioisotope in a cyclotron.

Forward-Looking Statements for Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 

The information in this press release contains forward-looking statements regarding future events, including statements about Actinium's expectations regarding the terms of the offering or completion of the offering.  Actinium intends such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions contained in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected or implied in these forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause such a difference include, without limitation, risks and uncertainties related to market and other conditions, the satisfaction of customary closing conditions related to the offering and the impact of general economic, industry or political conditions in the United States or internationally. There can be no assurance that Actinium will be able to complete the offering on the anticipated terms, or at all. More information about the risks and uncertainties faced by Actinium are more fully detailed under the heading "Risk Factors" in Actinium's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018 filed with the SEC. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which apply only as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, Actinium assumes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Contacts:

Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 
Steve O'Loughlin
Principal Financial Officer
[email protected]

Hans Vitzthum 
LifeSci Advisors, LLC
[email protected] 
(617) 535-7743

SOURCE Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.actiniumpharma.com