Sorrento lures former Celgene exec as CMO

US clinical-stage biotech firm Sorrento Therapeutics (Nasdaq: SRNE) has appointed Jerome Zeldis, former chief medical officer of Celgene Corp (Nasdaq: CELG), as its CMO and president of clinical development.

Dr Zeldis received his medical training in Internal Medicine at the UCLA Center for the Health Sciences and was a clinical and research fellow in gastroenterology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Additionally, he served as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of California, a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Cornell Medical School, and a Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, NJ. He currently serves as chairman of the board of Alliqua, Semorex, and Trek Therapeutics, vice chairman of MetaStat and serves on the boards of Kalytera Therapeutics, BioSig Technologies, IR Biosciences Holdings, PTC Therapeutics, and Soligenix.

"We are thrilled to have a highly accomplished biotech veteran of Jerry's stature join Sorrento to guide, drive and accelerate our clinical development," said Dr Henry Ji, president and chief executive of Sorrento, adding: "His expertise and track record in highly successful drug development will be invaluable to progress the clinical development of our program pipeline towards FDA approval and commercialization. Jerry's appointment highlights our focus on investing in clinical development and our steadfast commitment to Sorrento shareholders following the recent $150 million private placement led by Ally Bridge Group completed in June of this year."