Full Press Release Details
Cellectar Biosciences
Announces Executive Leadership Changes
Names Mr. Chad Kolean
as Chief Financial Officer
Longcor to Chief Operating Officer
PARK, N.J., February 23, 2022 -- Cellectar
Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLRB), a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization
of targeted drugs for the treatment of cancer, today announced it has named Mr. Chad Kolean as Chief Financial Officer and promoted Mr.
Jarrod Longcor to the role of Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Kolean, a seasoned thirty-year industry veteran, will replace Dov Elefant,
who is leaving to pursue other opportunities.
is with great enthusiasm that I congratulate Jarrod for his promotion to Chief Operating Officer and warmly welcome Chad back to the
Cellectar family," said James Caruso, CEO of Cellectar. "Chad is returning to us after further strengthening and broadening
his impressive business acumen having served as CFO to two commercial companies, one of which was sold for an attractive premium. We
are very pleased to have him join us once again, with his deep understanding of the company and broad industry knowledge. We appreciate
Dov's contributions and wish him well."
Caruso continued, "Jarrod's promotion to Chief Operating Officer is well deserved and acknowledges the broad value he brings
to the team beyond his previous role as Chief Business Officer. His added responsibilities will include overseeing our growth as we continue
to enhance our capabilities across the organization, where we have added to our manufacturing and regulatory functions and have planned
strategic commercial hires in preparation for a potential NDA filing in Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia (WM). We look forward to
announcing the results of the planned prespecified safety & efficacy assessment in the near term and completion of our pivotal trial
in WM. We remain committed to unlocking the potential of iopofosine I-131 in and beyond WM as we progress our ongoing trials."
Chad Kolean returns to Cellectar after having served as Chief Financial Officer to both Vivex Biologics, a regenerative medicine company
and Titan Spine, a spinal implant med-tech company sold to Medtronic. Mr. Kolean also served as Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer
for Pioneer Surgical Technology, a biologic and orthopedic implant company through its merger with RTI Surgical. Early in his career,
Mr. Kolean held leadership positions of increasing responsibility at multinational companies and those within the healthcare space including
Tomotherapy, Inc., Metavante Corporation, Snap On, Inc., Herman Miller, Inc., Kaydon Corporation, and Arthur Andersen, LLP. Mr. Kolean
earned his Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration and Finance from Hope College and graduated Magna Cum Laude.
Jarrod Longcor will add the new role of Chief Operating Officer to his Chief Business Officer responsibilities. He will lead and provide
strategic oversight of the company's key functional areas to ensure operational excellence as Cellectar progresses through its
clinical development programs and advances towards commercialization. Mr. Longcor has been with the company for 6 years as both a consultant
and Chief Business Officer.
of Inducement Option
In connection with his hiring, Cellectar has granted to Mr. Chad Kolean, effective as of his first day
of employment with Cellectar, an option to purchase 150,000 shares of Cellectar's common stock at an exercise price per share equal
to the closing price of Cellectar's common stock on the grant date as reported by Nasdaq. This grant was approved by the Compensation
Committee of Cellectar's Board of Directors and made as an inducement material to Mr. Chad Kolean entering into employment with
Cellectar as contemplated by Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4).
The stock option, which has
a 10-year term, vests and becomes exercisable in three equal annual installments beginning on the first anniversary from the date of
Mr. Chad Kolean's first day of employment.
Cellectar provides this information
in accordance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4).
About Cellectar Biosciences,
Biosciences is focused on the discovery and development of drugs for the treatment of cancer. The company is developing proprietary drugs
independently and through research and development collaborations. The company's core objective is to leverage its proprietary
Phospholipid Drug Conjugate (PDC) delivery platform to develop PDCs that specifically target cancer cells, delivering improved
efficacy and better safety as a result of fewer off-target effects. The company's PDC platform possesses the potential for the
discovery and development of the next-generation of cancer-targeting treatments, and it plans to develop PDCs independently and through
research and development collaborations.
company's product pipeline includes iopofosine, a small-molecule PDC designed to provide targeted delivery of iodine-131 (radioisotope),
and proprietary preclinical PDC chemotherapeutic programs and multiple partnered PDC assets. The company is currently investigating iopofosine
in a global, pivotal expansion cohort in relapsed or refractory WM patients who have received at least two prior lines of therapy, including
those who have failed or had a suboptimal response to Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitors. The WM cohort will enroll up to 50 patients
to evaluate the efficacy and safety of iopofosine for marketing approval. The company is also evaluating iopofosine in highly refractory
multiple myeloma patients in its Phase 2 CLOVER-1 study and relapsed/refractory pediatric cancer patients with sarcomas or brain tumors
in the Phase 1 CLOVER-2 study.
Phase 1 pediatric study is an open-label, sequential-group, dose-escalation study to evaluate the safety and tolerability of iopofosine
in children and adolescents with relapsed or refractory cancers, including malignant brain tumors, neuroblastoma, sarcomas, and lymphomas
(including Hodgkin's lymphoma). The Phase 1 study is being conducted internationally at seven leading pediatric cancer centers.
more information, please visit www.cellectar.com and www.wmclinicaltrial.com or join the conversation by liking and
following us on the company's social media channels: Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
Forward-Looking Statement Disclaimer
news release contains forward-looking statements. You can identify these statements by our use of words such as "may," "expect,"
"believe," "anticipate," "intend," "could," "estimate," "continue," "plans,"
or their negatives or cognates. These statements are only estimates and predictions and are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties
that may cause actual future experience and results to differ materially from the statements made. These statements are based on our
current beliefs and expectations as to such future outcomes including our expectations of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drug discovery
and development involve a high degree of risk. Factors that might cause such a material difference include, among others, uncertainties
related to the ability to raise additional capital, uncertainties related to the disruptions at our sole source supplier of iopofosine,
the ability to attract and retain partners for our technologies, the identification of lead compounds, the successful preclinical development
thereof, patient enrollment and the completion of clinical studies, the FDA review process and other government regulation, our ability
to maintain orphan drug designation in the United States for iopofosine, the volatile market for priority review vouchers, our pharmaceutical
collaborators' ability to successfully develop and commercialize drug candidates, competition from other pharmaceutical companies, product
pricing and third-party reimbursement. A complete description of risks and uncertainties related to our business is contained in our
periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission including our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 and
our Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2021. These forward-looking statements are made only as of the date hereof, and we
disclaim any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements.
Source: Cellectar Biosciences