ImmunoGen, Inc. Announces Election of Howard Pien to its Board of Directors and Other Results from its Annual Meeting of Shareholders
WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 11, 2009-- ImmunoGen, Inc. (Nasdaq: IMGN), a biotechnology company that develops targeted anticancer products, announced that Howard Pien was elected to its Board of Directors at today’s Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The Company also announced that Stephen C. McCluski has been named Chairman of the Board, replacing former ImmunoGen CEO Mitchel Sayare, Ph.D., in this position. Dr. Sayare continues to serve on the Board as a director.
“We believe now is an appropriate time to realign our corporate governance structure and have a non-executive chairman,” commented Daniel Junius, ImmunoGen President and CEO. “Steve has demonstrated that he can be an effective leader of the Board, and I look forward to working with him and the other directors in continuing to move the Company forward.”
Mr. McCluski has served on the ImmunoGen Board of Directors since April 2007, bringing to it extensive business and financial expertise. He was the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Bausch & Lomb Inc. prior to his retirement in 2007. Mr. McCluski is also a director of the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center of the University of Rochester and of Standard Microsystems Corporation.
“I look forward to serving ImmunoGen as chairman and – in this capacity – I am delighted to welcome Howard to the Board,” commented Mr. McCluski. “Howard’s experience at successful biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies will be invaluable as ImmunoGen continues to advance its pipeline.”
Mr. Pien was the Chairman of the Board and CEO of Medarex, Inc. from 2007 to its acquisition by Bristol-Myers Squibb Company in September 2009. Prior to that, he was President and CEO of Chiron Corporation from 2003 to its acquisition by Novartis, and before that Mr. Pien held positions of increasing responsibility at GlaxoSmithKline and its predecessor, SmithKline Beecham, at Abbott Laboratories and at Merck & Co. He is also a director of ViroPharma Incorporated and Vanda Pharmaceuticals.
“ImmunoGen is transitioning to becoming an organization that not only does outstanding research but also successfully advances significant new anticancer therapeutics, and I am looking forward to serving on its Board,” commented Mr. Pien.
At today’s Annual Meeting, shareholders also voted to fix the number of members of the Board of Directors at nine and approved an amendment to the Company's restated articles of organization to increase the number of authorized shares of common stock from 75 million to 100 million shares. In addition to electing Mr. Pien and re-electing Mr. McCluski and Dr. Sayare to the Board, shareholders re-elected Mr. Daniel Junius, Mr. David Carter, Dr. Nicole Onetto, Mr. Mark Skaletsky, Dr. Joseph Villafranca and Mr. Richard Wallace to the Board.
About ImmunoGen, Inc.
ImmunoGen, Inc. develops targeted anticancer therapeutics using its expertise in cancer biology, monoclonal antibodies and the creation and attachment of potent cell-killing agents. The Company’s Targeted Antibody Payload (TAP) technology uses antibodies to deliver one of ImmunoGen’s proprietary cell-killing agents specifically to cancer targets. In addition to the Company’s product pipeline, compounds utilizing the TAP technology are in clinical testing through ImmunoGen’s collaborations with Genentech (a wholly-owned member of the Roche Group), sanofi-aventis, Biogen Idec and Biotest. The most advanced compound, trastuzumab-DM1 (T-DM1), is in Phase III testing being conducted by Genentech and Roche. Other ImmunoGen collaborative partners include Bayer HealthCare and Amgen. More information about ImmunoGen can be found at www.immunogen.com.
Source: ImmunoGen, Inc.
ImmunoGen, Inc.
Carol Hausner, 781-895-0600
Executive Director, Investor Relations
and Corporate Communications
info@immunogen.com
