BURLINGAME, CALIF.--Humanigen, Inc. (Nasdaq: HGEN) (“Humanigen”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on preventing and treating an immune hyper-response called ‘cytokine storm’ with its lead drug candidate, lenzilumab™, today announced the appointment of Adrian Kilcoyne, MD, MBA, MPH, to the newly-created role of Chief Medical Officer, effective immediately, reporting to Dr. Cameron Durrant, CEO of Humanigen.

Dr. Kilcoyne brings to Humanigen strong leadership experience from multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and a strong clinical background in both Internal Medicine and Public Health Medicine. His most recent leadership role was in AstraZeneca, where he served as Vice President of Oncology Global Medical Affairs, Head of Evidence Generation and External Alliances, and previously as Vice President and Head of US Medical Affairs and Health Economics and Outcomes Research. Dr. Kilcoyne oversaw the development and delivery of the fully integrated global evidence strategy across the company’s complete oncology portfolio, including managing development of real-world evidence, epidemiology, biostatistics and data sciences, health economics and outcomes research, payer evidence, medical affairs sponsored research, and investigator research. He also led Global Oncology External Alliances, building strong scientific partnerships to advance patient care.

“Humanigen is delighted to welcome Dr. Kilcoyne,” said Dr. Durrant. “His experience and knowledge in multiple areas, including COVID-19, CAR-T and other oncology clinical development areas, medical affairs, regulatory affairs, evidence generation, health economics, and partnering gives him a unique insight that can be leveraged towards Humanigen’s COVID-19, acute GvHD, CAR-T and other oncology programs with lenzilumab and ifabotuzumab. In addition, Adrian’s leadership in the external alliances arena will be instrumental in helping guide the progress of Humanigen’s pipeline and potential commercialization.”

During his tenure at AstraZeneca, Dr. Kilcoyne oversaw multiple launches of innovative therapies in oncology, including acalabrutinib, a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor, in the US (marketed as CALQUENCE®) which has also been investigated in two Phase 2 studies in COVID-19 patients. Previously, Dr. Kilcoyne held several leadership positions at Celgene Corporation, a subsidiary of Bristol Myers Squibb, including Executive Medical Director, Global Lymphoma Program Lead, Clinical Research and Development overseeing the development of lenalidomide in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL). He was also the US lymphoma CAR-T lead supporting the clinical development and launch preparation of lisocabtagene maraleucel (or liso-cel, marketed as Breyanzi®) for the treatment of adults with relapsed or refractory (R/R) large B-cell lymphoma after two or more lines of systemic therapy. Prior to this, Dr Kilcoyne held Medical Affairs and Clinical Development leadership roles in Sanofi Pasteur MSD, Roche and Eli Lilly.

Dr. Kilcoyne’s responsibilities as Humanigen Chief Medical Officer include the clinical development and regulatory strategy for lenzilumab across its varied potential therapeutic indications including CAR-T, acute GvHD, CMML and COVID-19. Additionally, Dr. Kilcoyne will be responsible for the clinical development and regulatory strategy for ifabotuzumab in solid tumors. Dr. Kilcoyne will also be responsible for medical affairs, real-world evidence generation, health economics and outcomes and participate in external alliance evaluation.

“I am excited to join the Humanigen team at this time and look forward to the opportunity to contribute to the company’s strategic long-term growth. I am honored to have the opportunity to deliver on the promise that Humanigen’s innovative portfolio offers to patients with significant unmet medical need,” said Dr. Kilcoyne.

Dr. Kilcoyne graduated from Trinity College, Dublin and holds a MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, along with a MSc in Business Administration from the Warwick Business School. He is the co-author of Pharmaceutical Medicine, a textbook published by Oxford Specialist Handbooks in 2013, edition 2 now being finalized.