BRIEF—Wendy Li lined up as Gracell CMO

Gracell Biotechnologies, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing cell therapies for the treatment of cancer, has announced the appointment of Wendy Li as its chief medical officer (CMO).

Dr Li will oversee Gracell’s clinical development activities, including the advancement of its pipeline of autologous and allogeneic product candidates across the Sino-American company’s multiple proprietary technology platforms.

Prior to joining Gracell, Dr Li was CMO of CAR-T therapy company Exuma Biotech, and she has also held clinical development and medical affairs leadership positions at Pfizer, Sanofi, Genentech, and Sihuan Pharmaceutical.

She brings more than 20 years of experience leading all critical aspects of clinical and medical operations at early-stage and large pharmaceutical organizations in the USA and China. Her expertise includes leading early and late-stage clinical trials for several therapeutic candidates for the treatment of hematological malignancies and solid tumors.

“Dr Li’s decades of experience in leading clinical development and strategy across many types of cancers and treatment modalities, as well as expertise in working with regulatory agencies, will be invaluable as we continue to advance our pipeline of breakthrough cell therapies and approach the filing of our US IND application for GC012F later this year,” said William Cao, founder, chairman and chief executive of Gracell.