Scancell Appoints Dr Phil L’Huillier as CEO

22 October 2024

Scancell Holdings plc

("Scancell" or the "Company")

Scancell announces strengthening of leadership team as it closes on value-generating inflection points

Phil L'Huillier PhD, MBA appointed as Chief Executive Officer, bringing 30 years of pharmaceutical industry leadership experience

Professor Lindy Durrant remains in Chief Scientific Officer role to continue to progress Scancell's pioneering immunotherapy work

Scancell Holdings plc (AIM: SCLP), the developer of novel immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, today announces the appointment of Dr Phil L'Huillier as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He will join the company and become a member of the Company's Board of Directors, effective 18 November 2024. Current Chief Executive Officer, Professor Lindy Durrant, will remain in the CEO role until that date. She will also retain her position as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO), working closely alongside Dr L'Huillier, and will remain on the Company's Board of Directors.

Prior to joining Scancell, Dr L'Huillier served as CEO and Managing Director of CatalYm GmbH, a pioneering cancer immunotherapy company headquartered in Munich, Germany. At CatalYm, he was instrumental in expanding the Company's investor base and profile, successfully leading oversubscribed Series C and D financing rounds totalling over $200 million. During his tenure, the company successfully progressed the lead programme from Phase 1 to randomized Phase 2b clinical studies across several indications. Prior to this, he was Head of the European Innovation Hub & Business Development for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at global pharmaceutical company Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD). As part of his role, Phil was responsible for the identification and evaluation of BD opportunities across multiple indications, including oncology. Earlier in his career, he served as Executive Director and Board Member of Cancer Research Technology (CRT), a wholly owned for-profit subsidiary of Cancer Research UK (CRUK). Over the course of his career, Dr L'Huillier has also simultaneously played key roles in the formation of a number of biotechnology companies and served as Non-Executive Director for Achilles Therapeutics, Blink Therapeutics, Revitope Therapeutics, Senectus Therapeutics, PsiOxus Therapeutics and Hybrid Bioscience.

Dr L'Huillier holds a PhD in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, as well as an MBA.  

Dr Jean-Michel Cosséry, Non-Executive Chairman, Scancell said: "Phil is an accomplished, results-driven leader with a proven track record in developing and commercialising novel cancer therapeutics. We look forward to drawing on his deep understanding of the biopharmaceutical industry, as well as his substantial experience in the immunotherapy space as we progress towards near-term value-generating inflection points. On behalf of the Board, I warmly welcome him to Scancell.

"I would like to sincerely thank Lindy for her strategic and scientific guidance during her CEO tenure, which has been instrumental in establishing the Company as a leader in the immunotherapy space, and I am delighted that Scancell will continue to benefit from her expertise in her role as CSO."

Phil L'Huillier, incoming Chief Executive Officer, Scancell, added: "We are on the verge of a revolution in cancer therapy, driven by greater understanding of the human adaptive immune system. I am delighted to join Scancell at such an exciting juncture, with the company's complementary cancer vaccine platforms, ImmunoBody® and Moditope®, showing incredible potential in the clinic. Together with a dynamic and talented management team and Board of Directors, I am very much looking forward to building on the progress delivered under Lindy's leadership and realising the full potential of the core science to improve the lives of patients and create value for investors."

Professor Lindy Durrant, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer added: "When I took on the role of CEO three years ago my priority was to see our products evaluated in the clinic. We are now successfully delivering the clinical trials for both SCIB1/iSCIB1+ in melanoma and Modi-1 in various solid tumours. In addition, our anti-glycan antibody platform continues to yield exciting results with potential acceleration into the clinic with revenue generating deals. Scancell is now in a position with exciting clinical data to move to a late-stage clinical company and this is an excellent opportunity for Phil to take the company forward and allow me the to refocus my entrepreneurial skills on developing the portfolio. I would like to thank the board, employees and Scancell shareholders for their support over the last three years. I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked alongside such talented and dedicated individuals and I look forward to supporting Phil and Scancell as CSO as the company continues to grow and lead the development of its vaccine and antibody platforms."

Additional Information

In accordance with the AIM Rules, the following information required to be disclosed in relation to Phil L'Huillier is set out below. Other than this information, there is no further information required to be disclosed under paragraph (g) of Schedule Two of the AIM Rules.

Full name and age: Philip John L'Huillier, aged 62

-ENDS-

About Scancell

Scancell is a clinical stage immunotherapy company that is leveraging its proprietary research, built up over many years of studying the human adaptive immune system, to generate novel medicines to treat significant unmet needs in cancer. The Company is building a pipeline of innovative products by utilising its four technology platforms: Moditope^® and ImmunoBody^® for vaccines and GlyMab^® and AvidiMab^® for antibodies. Adaptive immune responses include antibodies and T cells (CD4 and CD8), both of which can recognise damaged or infected cells. In order to destroy such cancerous or infected cells, Scancell uses either vaccines to induce immune responses or monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to redirect immune cells or drugs. The Company's approaches are that vaccines (ImmunoBody^® and Moditope^®) use unique receptors to target antigens to activated antigen presenting cells whereas its mAb portfolio targets glycans or sugars that are added onto proteins and / or lipids (GlyMab^®) or enhances the potency of antibodies and their ability to directly kill tumour cells (AvidiMab^®).

Scancell is headquartered in Oxford, United Kingdom and is listed on AIM (LSE.SCLP.L). For further information about Scancell, please visit: https://www.scancell.co.uk.