ImmPACT Bio Names Venkat Yepuri as Chief Operating Officer

— Senior operations leader with broad and deep healthcare industry experience spanning 30 years will help company develop next-generation CAR T-cell therapies —

CAMARILLO, Calif., April 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ImmPACT Bio USA, Inc. ("ImmPACT Bio"), a clinical-stage company developing transformative logic-gate-based chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies for treating cancer, today announced the appointment of Venkata (Venkat) P. Yepuri as chief operating officer. In this role, Mr. Yepuri will oversee business operations across the company.

"Venkat is a senior operations leader with a track record of delivering transformative and strategic solutions in both high-growth and startup environments, and I am thrilled to welcome him to ImmPACT Bio as our chief operating officer," said Sumant Ramachandra, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., president and CEO, ImmPACT Bio. "His broad industry experience and expertise in building strategic partnerships, operationalizing global solutions, delivering experience at scale, enabling digital transformation, and building diverse and inclusive teams, will be of great benefit to ImmPACT Bio as we advance our pipeline of next-generation CAR T-cell therapies that harness the immune system and address key challenges for current cell therapies in cancer."

"It is an exciting time to join ImmPACT Bio as we look to advance the pipeline of our next-generation CAR T-cell therapies," said Mr. Yepuri. "I look forward to working with Sumant, our board, and the entire ImmPACT team to deliver on our mission to bring curative therapies to patients living with cancer."

Mr. Yepuri brings more than 30 years' experience working in biotech and healthcare provider fields. He joins ImmPACT from Amgen, where he spent 20 years in multiple roles with increasing responsibility in functions including business development, corporate transformation, information systems, and strategic sourcing/sustainability. He was most recently vice president, global business solutions and chief procurement officer at Amgen where his responsibilities included alliance management, business continuity and risk management, strategic sourcing and supplier diversity, real estate and space planning, external workforce center management, and employee services. Prior to Amgen, he co-founded a physician group purchasing company in the U.S., and with a Healthcare Association of Southern California spin-off, ran the technology consulting program for clients such as Kaiser Permanente. In addition, Mr. Yepuri established subsidiaries in India and Malaysia focused on medical equipment sales and services.

Since October 2020, Mr. Yepuri has been on the board of the Ventura County Community Foundation, which is focused on building philanthropy in the region through careful management of charitable capital, as well as connecting resources with local community needs. He is the chair of the strategic planning committee.

Mr. Yepuri holds a master's degree in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve University and a bachelor's degree in electronics and communication from Delhi University.

About ImmPACT Bio
ImmPACT Bio USA, Inc., is a clinical-stage company dedicated to the discovery of transformative chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies for cancer patients who have exhausted their treatment options. The company's logic-gate-based CAR T platforms address key biological challenges in treating cancer. ImmPACT Bio's technologies are specifically designed to prevent antigen escape, prevent 'on-target – off-tumor' toxicities, and overcome the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. The company's technology is based on the work of pioneering scientists Yvonne Chen, Ph.D., and Antoni Ribas, M.D., Ph.D., both from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Gideon Gross, Ph.D., from the MIGAL-Galilee Research Institute. For more information, visit www.immpact-bio.com.

SOURCE ImmPACT Bio