Bruno Lucidi has been appointed chief executive officer of AgenTus Therapeutics, Inc., a subsidiary of Agenus that has been established as a dedicated cell therapy company, which will focus on the discovery, development, and commercialization of Adoptive Cell Therapy (ACT). Mr. Lucidi will lead a team of scientists, while leveraging the technologies, intellectual property assets, pipeline, and expertise of parent company Agenus.       

Mr. Lucidi brings extensive expertise in drug development and more than 30 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Mr. Lucidi has served as head of Pediatric Vaccines at GSK Biologicals, where he was in charge of developing a global business of more than $3 billion. Mr. Lucidi was also worldwide vice president Virology & Oncology at Johnson & Johnson, where he led portfolio strategy from drug discovery to market and served in senior leadership at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he was responsible for the strategy and launch of several new antiviral and oncology products, including Videx (didanosine), Zerit (stavudine), Paraplatin (carboplatin) and Taxol (paclitaxel).

Mr. Lucidi was the founding CEO of Idenix and the chairman of Pharmasset, where his contributions at both companies laid the foundation for successful multi-billion dollar companies, which were later acquired by Merck and Gilead for approximately $4 billion and $11 billion, respectively.  
           
“Bruno has the ideal mix of industry know-how and business-building expertise to propel AgenTus forward and transform our powerful cell therapy technology into novel treatments for patients with cancer,” said Garo Armen, Ph.D. Chairman and CEO of Agenus. “I am delighted to see Bruno’s appointment to this key role to rapidly translate our cell therapy platforms, novel targets, and innovative delivery format into a pipeline of effective therapies to drive value to patients and AgenTus.”