Allogene Therapeutics Announces Eric T Schmidt, as Chief Financial Officer

Allogene Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company with a mission to catalyze the next revolution of cell therapy through the advancement of allogeneic CAR-T therapies, announced the appointment of Eric Schmidt, Ph.D. as chief financial officer. Dr Schmidt comes to Allogene from Cowen and Company, where he served as managing director and senior biotechnology analyst since 1998. For over two decades, Dr Schmidt has been a highly trusted and thoughtful industry analyst whose work has been recognized in polls conducted by Alpha Magazine, Institutional Investor, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal. “On behalf of our Executive Chairman, Arie Belldegrun, our Board of Directors and our entire team, it is my pleasure to welcome Eric to Allogene,” said David Chang, M.D., Ph.D., President, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Allogene. “Eric is an enormously talented individual with a rare blend of insight into multiple facets of the industry and deep relationships within the financial community. We are very fortunate to have him join the Allogene executive team and look forward to him applying his expertise to our vision for allogeneic cell therapy.”

“Eric has been an amazing partner to the entire Cowen family for the last 20 years,” said Jeffrey M Solomon, Cowen CEO. “He has been part of the lifeblood of our organization and a true friend who is passionate about this business and our firm. I am pleased that Eric has agreed to remain a Senior Advisor to Cowen. While we are saddened to see him leave his current role, he does so with our health care team stronger than ever, across research, banking, capital markets, sales, trading and corporate access.” Prior to joining Cowen in 1998, Dr Schmidt was a Vice President and Research Analyst covering the biotechnology sector for UBS Securities. Before joining UBS, he co-founded Cambridge Biological Consultants, a scientific consulting and research firm. He holds a B.A. in chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he serves on the Visiting Committee for the Department of Biology.

“I’ve watched and analyzed dozens of companies as they worked to bring innovative and transformative new therapies to the market,” said Dr Schmidt. “I have greatly admired the team and investors behind Allogene and consider myself very fortunate to be in a position to help make a difference in the lives of patients who are facing cancer.” Allogene is advancing its allogeneic CAR T portfolio acquired from Pfizer which included the rights to 16 preclinical CAR T assets licensed from Cellectis and Servier and U.S. rights to UCART19, an allogeneic CAR-T therapy that is being developed for the treatment of CD19-expressing hematological malignancies. In partnership with Servier, UCART19 is in Phase 1 for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). – Medical Buyer Bureau