Business
BeyondSpring Strengthens Executive Rank for Pipeline Expansion and Commercialization Readiness in China
Dr. James Tonra Promoted to Chief Scientific Officer Roland Liu Named Chief Commercial Officer for China Subsidiary NEW YORK, Jan. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE)
About this update from Beyondspring, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"Dr. James Tonra Promoted to Chief Scientific Officer\n Roland Liu Named Chief Commercial Officer for China Subsidiary NEW YORK, Jan. 06, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BeyondSpring Inc. (the “Company” or “BeyondSpring”) (NASDAQ: BYSI), a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of innovative immuno-oncology cancer therapies, announced today the appointment of Dr. James Tonra, Ph.D. as Chief Science Officer, effective immediately. Dr. Tonra had previously served as Senior Vice President, Preclinical Development at BeyondSpring since April 2018. In addition, Dalian Wanchunbulin Pharmaceuticals Ltd., BeyondSpring’s majority owned subsidiary in China, has tapped a commercial veteran, Roland Liu to serve as Chief Commercial Officer for China. In his previous position at BeyondSpring, Dr. Tonra has focused heavily on the Company’s I/O strategy, pipeline development and ubiquitination platform advancements, among other responsibilities. He was part of the team that discovered Plinabulin’s differentiated mechanism of action and helped to advance the publication of four peer reviewed papers in leading journals in 2019, including two journals from Cell Press. Additionally, he was instrumental in expanding Plinabulin’s clinical indications through outsourced nonclinical research, collaborating with leading experts, and was responsible for prioritizing and advancing the Company’s preclinical programs toward successful clinical testing. Prior to joining BeyondSpring, Dr. Tonra had over 20 years of drug development experience working in leading innovative biotech companies, including Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Kadmon Holdings and ImClone Systems/Eli Lilly, specializing in translating pre-clinical assets to clinical development and expanding the utility of clinically advanced assets. His research is published in over 45 peer-reviewed journals and he is an inventor on multiple patents claiming new uses for drugs. In the nearly 10 years Dr. Tonra spent at ImClone, his efforts were critical in the validation and IND filing for 10 pre-clinical assets, including Cyramza®, Portrazza®, and Lartruvo®. Moreover, Dr. Tonra’s preclinical work at ImClone demonstrated synergy between the combination of agents such as Cyramza and Tarceva®, recently shown to have meaningful clinical benefit in a subtype of non-small c...