Lorus Appoints CEO, Medical Affairs SVP

William Rice, Ph.D., has been appointed chief executive officer and chairman at Lorus Therapeutics Inc. Dr. Rice will guide the company’s strategic and clinical missions for targeting essential apoptosis pathways for new cancer therapies.
 
Dr. Rice most recently served as president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board at Cylene Pharmaceuticals, where he led the strategic and financing activities to design and develop small molecule therapeutics to exploit CK2-driven pathways and non-genotoxic mechanisms to kill cancer cells. Prior to Cylene, Dr. Rice was the founder, president, chief executive officer and director of Achillion Pharmaceuticals and served as head of the Drug Mechanism Laboratory at the National Cancer Institute-Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center.
 
“Dr. Rice is a biotech veteran with more than 20 years of leadership experience and a successful record of strategic, scientific and financing accomplishments. We are privileged to announce his addition to the Lorus team,” said Jim A. Wright, Ph.D., who will be transitioning from chairman of the board to lead director. “We also want to thank Dr. Aiping Young for her unwavering service as the former president and chief executive officer,” said Dr. Wright. “Dr. Young will continue to contribute to the cutting-edge research and operational activities as the president and chief operating officer of the company.”
 
In addition, Daniel D. Von Hoff, M.D., has been appointed senior vice president of Medical Affairs. Dr. Von Hoff is the physician-in-chief, Distinguished Professor at Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix, AZ and professor of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ. He and his colleagues led the development of many cancer agents including: mitoxantrone, fludarabine, paclitaxel, docetaxel, gemcitabine, irinotecan, nelarabine, capecitabine, lapatinib, vismodegib, nab-paclitaxel and others. Dr. Von Hoff has published and authored numerous papers, book chapters, and abstracts, and is a founder of ILEX Oncology.