Global biotechnology company Legend Biotech Corporation (NASDAQ: LEGN) announced today that Guowei Fang, Ph.D. will take over as Senior Vice President, Global Head of Research and Early Development after the resignation of Frank Fan, M.D., Ph.D., who resigned from the Company effective March 30, 2022.
About Legend Biotech
Legend Biotech is focused on the development, manufacture and commercialization of novel therapies to treat life-threatening diseases. The company is currently working to develop advanced cell therapy treatments across a multitude of diverse technology platforms including but not limited to allogenic and autologous chimeric antigen receptor T-cell, T-Cell receptor (TCR-T) along with the company’s natural killer (NK) cell-based immunotherapy.
Legend is headquartered in Somerset, New Jersey with three research and development (R&D) facilities around the world where the company applies their innovative technologies in the pursuit of discovering safe, efficacious and cutting-edge therapeutics that can improve the lives of patients throughout the world.
About Dr. Guowei Fang
Dr. Guowei Fang has experience in oncology and immunology with a wealth of experience as an accomplished scientist and pharmaceutical research and development leader.
Dr. Fang comes to Legend Biotech from Zymeworks Inc (NYSE: ZYME), where he served as senior vice president of Research and Development. In this role, he oversaw the development of novel platforms and a portfolio of multi-functional biologics and antibody drug conjugates. At Legend Biotech, Dr. Fang will be responsible for leading all research and development activities, including the identification and development of new product candidates.
Prior to that, Dr. Fang led discovery and early development initiatives as Head of Discovery at Pharmacyclics, an AbbVie company. In that role, he was responsible for building the Research, Discovery, Translation and Clinical Pharmacology organizations; delivering a broad pipeline of hematological assets; and supporting the clinical development of IMBRUVICA®.
Dr. Fang has a proven track record in drug discovery and development, with particular expertise in hematological assets along with a wealth of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, most notably at Genentech and AbbVie where he focused on oncology research and discovery.
At Pharmacyclics, he was responsible for advancing the company’s multiple pipeline agents for hematologic and solid cancers. This includes steering R&D in the United States, Ireland and China. Legend Biotech is confident that his expertise will help them bring new treatments to patients worldwide.
Dr. Fang is a highly accomplished scientist who has received extensive postdoctoral training in cell biology and cancer biology from Harvard Medical School. In addition, he holds a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Colorado—Boulder in biochemistry, cell biology and cancer biology. Dr. Fang has also been a faculty member at Stanford University, where he has played a leading role in cancer research.