21 June 2021 - - Allogene Overland Biopharm, a joint venture created by China- and US-based Overland Pharmaceuticals and US-based Allogene Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALLO), has appointed Shuyuan Yao, Ph.D. as chief executive officer, the company said.

Dr. Yao brings 15 years of scientific and management experience in advanced cell and gene therapy development, manufacturing and commercialization to lead Allogene Overland in its mission to bring innovative AlloCAR T therapies to patients in China and other Asian Pacific markets.

Most recently, Dr. Yao served as chief scientific officer, Head of Research and Technology Development of WuXi Advanced Therapies at WuXi AppTec where he led new technology acquisition, development, translation and application.

Prior to being CSO, Dr. Yao served as WuXi Advanced Therapies China general manager, establishing a new subsidiary company, ATU China.

At the start of his tenure at WuXi AppTec Shanghai, he established and directed the Cell Therapy R and D business unit focusing on CAR T cell therapy development.

He oversaw the rollout of this business unit to create JW Therapeutics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd, a joint venture between WuXi AppTec Shanghai and Juno Therapeutics, which was listed on the HKSE in November 2020, serving as VP of Operations.

Before joining WuXi AppTec, Dr. Yao was Associate director, Biology at Vertex Pharmaceuticals R and D (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. After earning his Ph.D., he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in chemical biology at The Scripps Research Institute.

He started his pharmaceutical career at Sangamo Biosciences, later transitioning to various roles of increasing responsibility at Stemgent, CalCyte Therapeutics, and the Allen Institute for Brain Science.
Dr. Yao received his B.Sc. in Virology and Molecular Biology from Wuhan University, his M.Sc. in Virology and Immunology at the Chinese Academy for Preventive Medicine, and his Ph.D. in Molecular and Medical Genetics from the University of Toronto.

Allogene Overland's pipeline is focused on the development, manufacturing, and commercialization of specific Allogene candidates targeting BCMA, CD70, FLT3, and DLL3 in the licensed territories. The joint venture also seeks opportunities to advance the global development of AlloCAR T therapies against these targets.

Allogene Overland Biopharm, a joint venture created by Overland Pharmaceuticals and Allogene Therapeutics, is dedicated to accelerating the global development of AlloCAR T therapies for patients with hematologic malignancies and solid tumors in China and other Asian Pacific territories.

Overland Pharmaceuticals is building a fully integrated biopharma company with a mission to bring innovative medicines to underserved patients in Asia and around the world.

By leveraging our resources, global network, and local expertise across the biopharma ecosystem in Asia, Overland is establishing a portfolio of differentiated therapeutic candidates in a few carefully selected therapeutic areas.

Through formative partnerships, Overland will move forward the development and commercialization of the most promising advances in medicine. 

Allogene Therapeutics, with headquarters in South San Francisco, is a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor T cell (AlloCAR T) therapies for cancer.

Led by a management team with significant experience in cell therapy, Allogene is developing a pipeline of "off-the-shelf" CAR T cell therapy candidates with the goal of delivering readily available cell therapy on-demand, more reliably, and at greater scale to more patients.