On August 14, 2019 Western Oncolytics (WO), a privately held biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of next generation oncolytic vaccinia virus immunotherapies reported that it has appointed Helena H. Chaye, Ph.D., J.D. to the position of chief executive officer (Press release, Western Oncolytics, AUG 14, 2019, View Source [SID1234538748]). Dr. Chaye most recently served as chief business officer for SillaJen, Inc., an oncolytic virus therapy company, and brings over 20 years of experience in business development, intellectual property management, corporate affairs and operations to Western Oncolytics.
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"Helena is an excellent, key and timely addition to our management team as we continue to build our company’s foundation ahead of moving into clinical development. Her depth of experience on the operations and business side for a company developing cancer immunotherapies will be invaluable," said Stephen H. Thorne, Ph.D., WO’s founder and chief scientific officer. "We also look forward to tapping into the global network that Helena has developed and believe that her contributions will enable us to move our new generation of optimized, multi-mechanistic cancer immunotherapies to the clinic more quickly."
"I am excited for the opportunity to join Western Oncolytics given the tremendous potential of WO’s technology and look forward to contributing to the company’s mission to create the best-in-class immuno-oncology platform," stated Dr. Chaye. "Among other tremendous progress by the WO team, I was pleased to see the SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) Grant awarded to WO by the U.S. government and believe this to be greatly validating to our technology and therapeutic approach."
Dr. Chaye served in recent years at SillaJen Biotherapeutics, most recently as chief business officer after having been part of the Strategic Planning and Development team at SillaJen. She was one of the early executives of Jennerex, which was acquired by SillaJen in 2014, and made significant contributions to the early development of the company’s oncolytic virus therapy and the growth of Jennerex during the years 2006 to 2012. At the time of her departure in 2012, Dr. Chaye was vice president of corporate affairs and intellectual property after having held many leadership positions that included business development, human resources and technology operations. She has held business development and IP management positions at DNAtrix, MediGene, Canadian Genetic Diseases Network and has worked as a consultant to start-up companies based in the U.S. and in Korea. Dr. Chaye received her Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of British Columbia and her J.D. from Dalhousie University.