Tocagen Appoints Mark Foletta as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

SAN DIEGO, March 7, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Tocagen Inc., a clinical-stage, cancer-selective gene therapy company, today announced the appointment of Mark Foletta as executive vice president and chief financial officer, succeeding Tom Darcy, a company co-founder who is retiring. Mr. Darcy will continue to serve on the company's board of directors.

"Mark is a proven leader with deep experience building successful biopharmaceutical companies," said Marty Duvall, Tocagen's chief executive officer. "With the recent milestones achieved in the Toca 511 & Toca FC clinical development program, including the granting of FDA Breakthrough Therapy Designation, we are pleased to have an executive with a strong track record of strategic, operational and commercial execution join our leadership team. We look forward to Mark's contributions to Tocagen during this period of rapid growth and progress."

Mr. Foletta holds more than thirty years of experience as a financial executive. He previously served as senior vice president and chief financial officer of Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. through the company's acquisition by Bristol-Myers Squibb in August 2012 in a transaction valued at $7 billion. During his twelve years in this role, Mr. Foletta executed strategic transactions and participated in the commercial launch of several novel drugs. Mr. Foletta currently serves as a board member for several biopharmaceutical companies, including AMN Healthcare, Inc., Regulus Therapeutics Inc. and DexCom, Inc., and chairs each of their audit committees.  

Prior to Amylin, Mr. Foletta held roles of increasing responsibility at Intermark, Inc./Triton Group Ltd., including serving as senior vice president, chief financial officer and corporate secretary. Previous to this position he held various roles of increasing responsibility at Ernst & Young, LLP, including serving as audit manager. Mr. Foletta received a bachelor's degree in business economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive) and is member of the Corporate Directors Forum.

"Tom's financial leadership since our founding has been instrumental in the growth and success of Tocagen to date," said Faheem Hasnain, chairman of the board of directors at Tocagen. "We wish him all the very best in retirement and look forward to working with him in his continuing role on the board of directors for the company."

About Tocagen

Tocagen is a clinical-stage, cancer-selective gene therapy company developing first-in-class, broadly applicable product candidates designed to activate a patient's immune system against their own cancer. The company is developing its lead investigational product candidate, Toca 511 & Toca FC, initially for the treatment of recurrent high grade glioma (HGG), a disease with significant unmet medical need. Tocagen has received grant support from leading brain cancer foundations, including Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure (ABC2), National Brain Tumor Society (NBTS), American Brain Tumor Association (ABTA), Musella Foundation and Voices Against Brain Cancer (VABC). For more information, visit www.tocagen.com or follow @Tocagen.

SOURCE Tocagen Inc.

Related Links

http://www.tocagen.com