Precigen Appoints Phil Tennant as Chief Commercial Officer to Spearhead First Potential Gene Therapy Launch

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Jul 23, 2024, 08:01 ET

– Company strengthens focus on building and optimizing commercial readiness and pre-launch
activities for PRGN-2012 in recurrent respiratory papillomatosis –

GERMANTOWN, Md., July 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Precigen, Inc. (Nasdaq: PGEN), a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of innovative gene and cell therapies to improve the lives of patients, today announced the appointment of Phil Tennant as the Company's chief commercial officer. Mr. Tennant will be responsible for commercial strategy and execution across US and global markets. His initial focus will be on driving commercial readiness activities for the potential launch of the first- and best-in-class PRGN-2012 AdenoVerse gene therapy in recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP). Mr. Tennant will report to Precigen's President and CEO, Helen Sabzevari, PhD, and will join Precigen's executive leadership team.

Mr. Tennant's 30-plus year career has spanned numerous leading biotech and pharmaceutical companies, including Merck, Sharp & Dohme, AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb and, most recently, Astellas Pharma. He has worked in multiple therapeutic areas across the globe, including in the United Kingdom, Europe, Japan, Australia, and the US. For the past 13 years, his career has focused mainly on oncology, initially driving commercial success at Bristol Myers Squibb in new markets for the first wave of immuno-oncology agents, including launching YERVOY® (ipilimumab) in Australia and supporting subsequent launches in Europe for both YERVOY and OPDIVO® (nivolumab), and orchestrating commercial growth across several hematological cancers with SPRYCEL® (dasatinib) and EMPLICITI® (elotuzumab). Most recently at Astellas, Mr. Tennant drove double-digit growth for the $5B global oncology portfolio, including driving commercial expansion for the androgen receptor inhibitor, XTANDI® (enzalutamide), leading US commercial growth in two new indications for the antibody drug conjugate, PADCEV® (enfortumab vedotin), expanding the ex-US footprint for the tyrosine kinase inhibitor, XOSPATA® (gilteritinib), and adding commercial momentum to the targeted monoclonal antibody, VYLOY™ (zolbetuximab). At Astellas, he served as a core member of the joint steering committees for two successful alliances: with Seagen/Pfizer for PADCEV and with Pfizer for XTANDI. Mr. Tennant has also been a board member for the Illinois Biotechnology Innovation Organization (iBIO) and the global startup incubator, MATTER.

"Phil is a recognized global commercial leader with an impressive 30-plus year track record building commercial organizations and scaling commercial operations to drive revenue growth for both niche and blockbuster therapeutics. In his most recent role, he successfully drove multiple new product launches and scaled to ex-US markets leading to double-digit revenue growth. His expertise in both solid and hematologic cancers as well as rare diseases represents a tremendous opportunity for Precigen to capitalize on this expertise," said Helen Sabzevari, PhD, President and CEO of Precigen. "This is a transformational time for Precigen as we are transitioning toward a commercial stage company and Phil's expertise is precisely tailored to propel our first potential commercial launch in the US. Phil's relationships with our target prescriber base will enable rapid growth in our key markets, enabling access to our potential life-changing RRP therapy for patients who urgently need it."

"This is a tremendously exciting time to join Precigen. I am thrilled to be able to collaborate with the team to further commercial readiness work already underway and build out Precigen's commercial strategy and operations to support the first potential commercial launch for the company's lead asset, PRGN-2012," Mr. Tennant said. "I was inspired by the groundbreaking pivotal data for PRGN-2012 presented at ASCO this year and learning more about the immense need for a non-surgical FDA-approved therapeutic option for RRP patients. Precigen is poised to deliver a potential game-changing novel therapy for these patients and, as we march toward potential FDA approval, I will work tirelessly to ensure patients have access to this medicine as rapidly as possible."

Precigen: Advancing Medicine with Precision^™Precigen (Nasdaq: PGEN) is a dedicated discovery and clinical stage biopharmaceutical company advancing the next generation of gene and cell therapies using precision technology to target the most urgent and intractable diseases in our core therapeutic areas of immuno-oncology, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases. Our technologies enable us to find innovative solutions for affordable biotherapeutics in a controlled manner. Precigen operates as an innovation engine progressing a preclinical and clinical pipeline of well-differentiated therapies toward clinical proof-of-concept and commercialization. For more information about Precigen, visit www.precigen.com or follow us on X @Precigen, LinkedIn or YouTube.

Trademarks
Precigen, AdenoVerse, and Advancing Medicine with Precision are trademarks of Precigen and/or its affiliates. YERVOY, OPDIVO, SPRYCEL, EMPLICITI, XTANDI, PADCEV, XOSPATA, and VYLOY are trademarks of their respective owners.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Some of the statements made in this press release are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based upon the Company's current expectations and projections about future events and generally relate to plans, objectives, and expectations for the development of the Company's business, including the timing and progress of preclinical studies, clinical trials, discovery programs and related milestones, the promise of the Company's portfolio of therapies, and in particular its CAR-T and AdenoVerse therapies. Although management believes that the plans and objectives reflected in or suggested by these forward-looking statements are reasonable, all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and actual future results may be materially different from the plans, objectives and expectations expressed in this press release. The Company has no obligation to provide any updates to these forward-looking statements even if its expectations change. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. For further information on potential risks and uncertainties, and other important factors, any of which could cause the Company's actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Investor Contact:
Steven M. Harasym
Vice President, Investor Relations
Tel: +1 (301) 556-9850
[email protected]

Media Contacts:
Donelle M. Gregory
[email protected]

Glenn Silver
Lazar-FINN Partners
[email protected]

SOURCE Precigen, Inc.