Tarveda Therapeutics, Inc., today announced the appointment of Leila Alland, M.D. to the position of Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Alland brings more than 15 years of pharmaceutical drug development experience with a focus on oncology including leadership roles in clinical development at AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
“We are delighted that Leila is joining Tarveda as we ramp up our drug development activities. Leila’s deep experience in leading clinical drug programs adds to our capabilities and the breadth of our stellar team as we expand the development of our Pentarins to a number of solid tumor targets,” said Drew Fromkin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Tarveda Therapeutics. “Leila has a proven track record of developing oncology drugs including most recently advancing more than a dozen clinical-stage oncology programs in her previous role as Vice President and Head of Oncology Clinical Development at AstraZeneca. She will be invaluable as we advance Tarveda’s lead drug candidate, PEN-221, into Phase 1 clinical studies this year.”
Dr. Alland has broad experience as a clinical leader developing both small and large molecule oncology products including Doxil®, Pegintron®, Tasigna®, and Opdivo®. Dr. Alland most recently served as Vice President and Head of Oncology Early Clinical Development at AstraZeneca where she was instrumental in building a new Oncology Early Clinical Development unit in Boston, MA, and Cambridge, UK. At AstraZeneca, she led numerous clinical stage programs through Phase 1/2 development, including six first-in-human programs and a Phase 2 registration study supporting the approval of Tagrisso™. At BMS, Dr. Alland served as clinical head for multiple early phase oncology programs spanning tumor targeted and immuno-oncology therapies. Dr. Alland conducted her pediatric hematology and oncology training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and then joined the faculty of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine as Assistant Professor where her cancer biology research resulted in publications in Nature,Nature Genetics and Cell. She received her medical degree at New York University School of Medicine and her B.A. in Biology at the University of Pennsylvania.