Scancell appoints new heads of research and manufacturing

Immunotherapy developer Scancell Holdings announced the appointment of Dr Samantha Paston as its head of research, and Dr Adrian Parry as its head of manufacturing, on Monday.

The AIM-traded firm said Dr Paston started in her role in mid-January, with Dr Parry set to start in his role on 1 February.

Dr Samantha Paston was joining Scancell from Immunocore, where she had held a number positions since June 2008, including head of T-cell cloning and group leader.

While at Immunocore, Dr Paston was responsible for the generation of the in house T-cell cloning method and biological molecule discovery, which had reportedly made “significant” contributions to the current Immunocore oncology pipeline.

Prior to that, she held a number of positions at Medigene, Avidex, NIBSC and GSK.

Dr Paston held a PhD from University College London in immunology and haematology, following an BSc Honours Degree in microbiology from the University of Sheffield.

Based at the company's corporate offices in Oxford, she would report directly to Scancell's founder and chief scientific officer, professor Lindy Durrant.

“Samantha will be invaluable in immunological design of the upcoming trials and spearheading the new TCR therapeutics and I am very excited to add such an experienced scientist to the team,” Durrant said.

Dr Adrian Parry was joining Scancell from Mereo BioPharma, where he was head of small molecule chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC), managing outsourced GMP manufacturing activities to support their clinical trials.

Prior to that, he was new product development director at Juniper Pharmaceuticals, where he managed and coordinated preclinical and CMC development activities.

Dr Parry had previously held further CMC positions at Circassia, Shire Pharmaceuticals, Prosidion, Evotec and OSI Pharmaceuticals, totalling 20 years of development expertise including the delivery of multiple, complex GMP drug products with associated regulatory submissions in Europe and the US.

He held a PhD in physical organic and analytical chemistry from The Open University, following a MSc in advanced analytical chemistry from the University of Bristol.

Dr Parry would also be based in the Oxford offices, and would report to Dr Sally Adams - Scancell's development director.

“We are delighted to welcome both Samantha and Adrian to Scancell,” said Scancell chief executive officer Cliff Holloway.

“Samantha's experience in T cell cloning and working with biological molecules, from drug discovery through to early development, will be invaluable as we continue to progress our pipeline of cancer immunotherapies.”

Holloway said likewise, Adrian's 20 years of CMC and GMP development expertise would be “key” for Scancell’s manufacturing capabilities moving forward.

“These two appointments are significant for Scancell as we expand our research and development and manufacturing capabilities in order to further advance our ‘ImmunoBody’ and ‘Moditope’ pipeline products through clinical development.”