Innovent Biologics, Inc., a world-class biopharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures and commercializes high-quality medicines for the treatment of oncology, metabolic, autoimmune and other major diseases, today announces the appointment of Dr. Yong Jun Liu, a renowned world class scientist and successful leader in biopharmaceutical industry, as the president of the group. Reporting to Dr. Michael Yu, founder, chairman and CEO of the group, Dr. Liu will be mainly responsible for group's global R&D, portfolio strategy, business development as well as international operation.
As a world renowned scientist in immunology, oncology and translational medicine, Dr. Liu has over 30 years' experiences in both academic institutions and top global pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Liu received his MD's degree in internal medicine from Bethune Medical University in 1984 and Ph.D. degree in Immunology from University of Birmingham, UK in 1989. After two years postgraduate training in the same laboratory at University of Birmingham, he joined multinational pharmaceutical company Schering-Plough in 1991 as a Senior Scientist at Schering-Plough Lyon France. In 1997, he moved to the DNAX Research Institute, a biotech company owned by Schering-Plough in Palo Alto, California, as a Principal Staff Member. In 2002, Dr. Liu was recruited by the University of Texas (UT), MD Anderson Cancer Center, as the Vivian Smith Distinguished Chair Professor, Chairman of the Department of Immunology and the founding Director of the Center for Cancer Immunology Research (CCIR). In 2011, Dr. Liu was recruited by the Baylor Research Institute as the Chief Scientific Officer and the Director of the Baylor Immunology Research Institute. After more than 10 years at the academia, Dr. Liu was recruited by Medimmune, a biopharmaceutical subsidiary of AstraZeneca, as Chief Scientific Officer and global Head of Research in 2014. Before joining Innovent, Dr Liu served as the global Head of Research at Sanofi from 2016 to 2020.
Dr. Liu has remarkable academic achievements and rich experience in research institutions. As one of the top cited scientists in Immunology with over 94,000 citations, Dr. Liu published over 260 scientific papers in Nature, Science and other top academic journals. These studies provide a number of key targets for drug development in the area of inflammation, autoimmune diseases, allergy and oncology, such as thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), OX40 (CD134), plasma cell like dendritic cells (pDCs).
As key executive R&D leader in multiple global pharmaceutical companies for nearly a decade, Dr. Liu has made remarkable achievements in strengthening drug research capability and enriching early stage innovative pipelines in major therapeutic areas, especially in the fields of immunology and oncology. His leadership skill and strategic thinking guided R&D functions to effectively develop first-in-class and best-in-class drugs during his tenure in various global pharmaceutical companies.
"Warmly welcome Dr. Liu and we are more than excited to have him join Innovent," said Dr. Michael Yu, founder, chairman and CEO of Innovent. "Dr. Liu is not only a renowned scientist with strong academic background but also a powerful manager with extraordinary leadership and rich experience in drug research and development. His successful experience in strengthening the drug research capability and enriching innovative pipeline is an ideal fit to Innovent's strategic goal of developing a first-in-class pipeline for the global market. We believe that Dr. Liu's leadership will bring added benefits to further strengthen our R&D capability and solidify our efforts in building a global R&D platform and developing a more innovative pipeline."
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